Whether you are prospecting for new business or looking for work, a networking event is a great way to establish new contacts. As you recall in our last exciting episode, I had waded into a networking function, sponsored by the Nashville Chamber. As a representative of The Southwestern Company, I was ready: I had business cards, dry palms, a nice suit on, and fresh breath, compliments of Orbit gum.
When you meet and greet, the question is inevitable. ”And what do you do?” Here are some possible answers:
“Uh, I’m in sales.” (A fascinating opener–they yawn.)
“I’m a recruiter with ______ company….” (Wait for them to shout–”Oh my gosh! Let’s do business!”)
“I’m glad you asked!” (Then ramble for 10 minutes.)
Not exactly descriptive or gripping.
So, after having attended a great workshop with Cindy Hazen, of Sales-Executives, I discovered a better way. Here is her formula. First, create your defining statement. Position yourself by concept, not titles/services/products. Think about the following questions:
What is unique about my services or product?
Why should anyone do business with me?
3-5 words long with not more than one “and”
Try words like “work with” and “want”
So take this, and build a short “elevator speech” introduction, emphasizing your benefit–not what you do, but what they get…
What you do: “I am a real estate agent.” Try: “I help my clients find & live in their dream home.”
What you do: “I am an executive recruiter.” Try: “I work with companies who struggle with hiring the right performance-oriented employees.”
What you do: “I work at Southwestern.” Try: “I help college students develop the skills and character they need to achieve their goals in life.”
These new, improved responses really juice your first impressions. Make it interesting and establish the benefit of what you do in the first sentence. Then you can further describe exactly what you do and how you do it as you talk.
So, next time you’re at a job fair, a networking event, or just a large party, give this a try. You may even have people interested in what you have to say! I welcome your comments/stories/questions.
Have you ever walked into a large party, and moved toward the first familiar face you saw? Or maybe you’ve been to a big conference that sponsored a social event. If you work with The Southwestern Company, you get good at meeting people and making good first impressions in their homes. But what about approaching people in a larger professional setting?
Recently, I attended a Nashville Chamber of Commerce event—specifically, a networking event called Walkabout 180. They cleverly had 6 30-minute training sessions, wherein an attendee could get a lot of useful info in short seminars. Even more cleverly, they asked me to speak (insert smiley face here).
Now, since this was a networking event, I was interested to see how these business executives, in fact, networked. Prior to the first training session, there was a half hour dedicated solely to networking, complete with sundry breakfast items. As I entered the room, there were little clumps of people talking, exchanging cards, and shaking hands.
Most of my conversations were brief, either because people wanted to meet & greet as many attendees as possible, or they found me incredibly dull. It wasn’t exactly like speed dating, but some people were better than others at making good first impressions.
“And what do you do…?” This came up a lot.
For me, a Neophyte Networker, it was a bit weird–creating mini-relationships, collecting business card souvenirs, and then moving on. Or hearing conversations die out after names and the “and what do you do” were exchanged.
Luckily, there was a really good session dedicated to the art of networking. It was conducted by Cindy Hazen of Sales Executives. In her session, she pointed out the real definition of networking: a lifelong process of meeting people, making contacts, developing friendships, and building professional relationships.
Cindy explained how to “work a room”:
*approach groups of three or more. If you approach two people in a conversation, it can be considered interrupting. With a group of three or more, it’s not. (You can also help out the poor soul who’s standing alone.)
*when you are in a group of three or more, welcome newcomers. Say hi and ask them about themselves.
*write the date on their business cards you get and unique notes about them (hobbies, interesting facts they shared).
*send them an email as a follow up, or better yet, a hand-written note. You can ask them to join you in your Linkedin network.
As with any sales encounter, if your focus is “what can this person do for me?” or “how can this person become a customer?” Your networking will ultimately fail. On the other hand, if your focus is “how can I help this person?” and you get in a state of curiosity, you’ll be much more successful.
What are your tips and strategies to “working a room?” How can you make your networking a success? Share your thoughts; leave a comment.
When I wrote, “I decided today to go with the Southwestern Company to wherever the heck it is we’re going to sell books this summer” in my journal on March 27, 1996, I had no idea I’d be with the same company a decade and a half later. At the time, I just wanted to do something where I could earn some money to help pay for out of state tuition at UNC-Chapel Hill when my scholarship ran out.
This will be the first of a series of entries about why a 32-year-old with the resume and skill set more developed than most 55 year olds would continue to work with the same company he started with as a freshman in college. Although I can’t speak for them, it may explain why other people enjoy working here as well. Even if you aren’t interested in why I or anyone else work with Southwestern, you’ll probably like some of the insights I’ll share that I’ve gained from the 50,000+ conversations I’ve had with people as a result of this career.
Is/Do/About:
The above three words outline the framework of an important distinction for defining any organization or activity.
Oftentimes people use them interchangeably or merge them together, but they are not the same. For instance, I played football in high school. If someone had never heard of football and asked, “What is football?” most people would say, “A sport where…” and begin do describe the “do” part, as in “what the participants ‘do’.” By applying the distinction above, understanding organizations and their roles becomes easier and more meaningful:
Football IS a sport.
In football, players DO:
Give up afternoons to wear heavy pads in hot conditions where someone in an authority position tells them what to do for several hours. Some of these instructions include (but aren’t limited to) running as fast as possible to a location only to turn around immediately and run back to the point from which one has just come until one’s legs feel as if they will fall off, running into another man in such a way that he is unable to move freely or is lying on the ground; slamming one’s body into a very heavy metal object with thin padding, etc.
What football is ABOUT:
Moving an oblong ball across a painted line and preventing another team from doing the same.
Anyone who has never played the game or doesn’t understand the game may believe the “about” statement above is true. In actuality, that statement is just a further description of what one “does” who plays the game.
Anyone who’s ever played the game or understands the game gets that football is really ABOUT:
Winning, teamwork, discipline, competition, camaraderie, challenge, success, failure, resiliency, mental toughness, breaking belief barriers, setting and achieving goals, personal growth, courage, responsibility, glory, and the list goes on.
The reason people give up huge portions of their free time to play football, or any other sport, is not because of what you DO. It’s because of what it’s ABOUT.
The reason I have chosen to stay with Southwestern for nearly a decade and a half is because of what we’re ABOUT:
Southwestern IS: A company started in 1868. To someone who’s never worked with us before Southwestern is a summer program for college age students.
The students who work with SouthwesternDO: Knocking on doors to sell educational stuff far away from the comforts of home for a grueling amount of hours with no guaranteed pay.
What Southwestern is ABOUT: Being the best organization in the world at helping young people develop the skills and character they need to achieve their goals in life.
I understand that it may not be glowingly obvious how the “DO” part could possibly connect to the “ABOUT” part. That’s what I’ll write about in my next entry. So what about your company? Can you apply the Is/Do/About formula to it? What does it look like? We welcome your comments.
(OK. I’m taking a bit of blogging license here, so relax, dear readers.)
One thing I preach from stage at The Southwestern Company’s Sales School is flexibility. Whoever has the most flexibility has the most influence—this is one of the tenets of NLP. So, the best salespeople have the greatest ability to adapt to their prospects.
Now here’s your Bible study for the day. I was reading 1 Corinthians 9:19-22, where Paul discusses how he shares his faith with all different types of people. He states:
“For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law, though not being myself under the Law, that I might win those under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, …that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.”
Without stepping on anyone’s spiritual toes here, I would contend that Paul is quite effective, not only as an evangelist, but also as a salesperson. A good salesperson “is all things to all people.” In other words, good salespeople adapt their message to each individual prospect.
When I was selling books with The Southwestern Company (back during Bible times), I did not approach all my prospects the same way. When I called on factory workers, I presented my products differently than when I was giving a demonstration to a college professor. My approach to a middle school teacher was different than my approach to a farmer. I varied my diction, language, speed—all in an effort to help my prospects feel more comfortable with me, thus increasing the chances of their buying.
Do you adapt to the prospect at hand? Are you flexible? Or do you use a one-size-fits-all delivery? Are you interesting to people, or just a droid who has an appointment? Let me know your stories from the bookfield or elsewhere. Share a thought or a comment!
What Paul said nearly 2000 years ago still holds true–whether you’re a believer or not–believe that flexibility wins the day in sales.
Just before I began my first summer with The Southwestern Company, I had the opportunity to meet Anthony Burgess when he came to our campus. Who is Anthony Burgess you ask? He is my favorite British author, most famous for writing A Clockwork Orange, later made into a movie by Stanley Kubrick. (Assignment: go attempt to read this short novel–it’s brilliant and violent–all written in nadsat–a teen slang with Russian roots that Burgess created.) His novel took just two weeks to write.
OK, enough literary background. This is a sales blog. Right.
I had lunch with him and some other grad students, then had the good fortune to hear Mr. Burgess give a lecture that night. It was called “The Author’s Daily Damnation.” Intriguing title! What did Mr. Burgess discuss? How authors need daily discipline–how they need to write, regardless of how inspired they feel! How they need to plant their rear ends in the chair and crank out a minimum of a few pages a day–even if it’s not great material. In short, he was, in Southwestern parlance, citing the value of “30 demos a day” or “putting in the hours.”
Burgess stressed how, as an author, you worked, you wrote, you typed, every day. Your inspiration, your creativity, listening for your muse–were all secondary to the task of sitting down and working. (He also proposed that part of the author’s daily damnation was to become famous for your worst work–in this case for his Clockwork novel, but again that’s for another literary blog.)
So, my sales droogs, think about your daily disciplines–those activities which determine your success as a salesperson. Are you motivated to make calls? To approach people? To conduct info sessions? I welcome your thoughts.
How do you regain perspective when you are in a sales slump? When I was selling as a student with Southwestern, I had attitude adjustments made from within and from without. Last week, I was taken by a touching story from the Olympics . It reminded me how we can get perspective when we’ve lost it.
Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada’s first Olympic gold medal on home soil recently in the men’s moguls ski competition. Canada had failed to medal when it hosted both the ’76 and ’88 Olympics. When he won, the nation went crazy. The back story I found as compelling as the actual race.
Bilodeau credited much of his success and all of his sports inspiration to his older brother, Frederic, who has spent his life challenged by cerebral palsy. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age 10 and doctors told him he would lose the ability to walk. Although he spends most of his time in a wheelchair, Frederic still walks — and skis.
Alex and Frederic are best friends, and the young Olympian adores his older brother. Frederic was there to cheer on his younger brother, and during the final of the men’s moguls, cameras showed Frederic cheering enthusiastically for his brother, jumping out of his seat and waving his arms in the air as soon as Alexandre crossed the line at the end of his gold-medal run. (OK, Canadians, heres is a bonus report just for you):
Alex calls his older brother his inspiration.
His brother has helped him keep things in perspective all these years, especially when he was disappointed by an 11th-place finish at the Torino Olympics in 2006.
“Even if it’s raining, I’ll take it, I’ll go train,” Bilodeau said. “He doesn’t have that chance, and he’s having a smile every morning he wakes up.”
Alex said whenever he was upset and unmotivated to get up and ski, he thought of his brother, who, although suffering from this disease, never complained: “He is the happiest guy in the world. Frederic wakes up every day with a big smile and goes to bed with a big smile. He puts everything in my life in perspective.”
How do you maintain your perspective when sales disappointment strikes? What questions do you ask yourself? How do you get unstuck? Share a thought!
Flip a coin. Flip it again. And flip it 15 times after that. What are the chances that it landed on heads all 17 times? Slim to none, I’d guess.
Just as with the coin, sales is a numbers game. It is 100% guaranteed that you will experience both the winning, and the losing, sides of the coin. You will hear customers say ‘yes!’ to your product and you will also hear customers tell you that your product is rubbish and, ‘no, I’m not buying’.
Matter of fact, you will likely hear the latter more often than you will hear the former. This is not bad news; it simply is the way it is. But how bland would your job be if you heard ‘yes’ all the time? The reason making a sale feels so good is because you know that we’ve worked for it. You put the time and energy into it, and you earned that sale. Hearing nothing but ‘yes’ would take the excitement away. Just like it wouldn’t be much fun flipping that coin if it always landed on heads. You will hear a ‘yes’ eventually… if you are willing to stick around long enough and see it through. It is statistically impossible for you to go at it day after day, time after time, try after try, and not make a sale. It may take a day or a week or a month, but it will happen. It’s got to happen.
Colonel Sanders drove around the US for two years trying to sell his chicken recipe. He was turned down 1,009 times. Talk about believing in the numbers!
The people who excel in this world are not the lucky or the smart or the naturally gifted. They are the patient, the persistent, and the tenacious. They are the ones that got back up after they’d been chewed up and spit out.
So get used to the word ‘no’. Expect, embrace it, and learn to enjoy it. Because that ‘no’ means that you are now one ‘no’ closer to your long-awaited YES.
Haley Price sold books for three summers (2003-2005). She is the author and illustrator of Today is the Best Day of My Life. This book contains bite-sized life principles, presented in a light and simple way, that are intended to help guide people toward a more productive, more meaningful, and more fun life. She tailored a version of this book specifically towards Southwestern students, and it was used for the first time in their sales kits in the summer of 2009. While not writing, Haley works in global advertising sales for Microsoft in New York, NY.
What can we learn from Super Bowl XLIV that could apply to Southwestern student managers? For me, one principle stood out: the value of attitude and confidence! The game was a classic case of the technically-flawless Peyton Manning and his confident Colts losing to the underdog Drew Brees and the formerly-hapless Saints.
I fully expected Peyton Manning to win, and handily. He is one of the best quarterbacks of all time, a true “student of the game”. Even during games the Colts are winning, he is on the sidelines studying photos of the opposing defenses. Manning is the consummate professional–cool, calm, collected. He gets annoyed when his team doesn’t perform perfectly.
As I watched (with all my American Airlines friends at O’Hare airport), I have to admit I nearly gave up on the Saints in the first quarter after they fell behind 10-0. Manning was taking them apart, moving his offense down the field with the customary surgical precision. History was against any team overcoming a ten point deficit. It looked like the confident, technical master was going to prevail over his upstart emotional opponents.
My plane took off and I knew I’d land to hear Colts celebrating on ESPN.
Was I shocked when the pilot announced that the final score was 31-17…and the Saints had won! A first time victory for the Saints in their first trip to the Super Bowl. It was inspiring to hear Brees and his coach, Sean Payton, share their emotions about winning the Lombardi Trophy.
My assessment? Attitude and emotion prevailed over technical execution. The New Orleans Saints simply would not be denied. They wanted it more. The excitable Drew Brees and his teammates took on the pressure and prevailed. He commented after the game:
“Along the way, people have asked me so many times, ‘Do you look at it as a burden or extra pressure? Do you feel like you’re carrying the weight of the city on your teams’ shoulders.’ I said, ‘No, not at all. We look at it as a responsibility.’ Our city, our fans, gave us strength and we owe this to them. … There’s no people that you would want to win for more than the city of New Orleans.”
The Saints had decided in advance they were supposed to win, and their collective positive attitude won the day, and the championship.
Have you known sales people who knew their stuff, who made their calls, who did the demos, but were not performing well? Sure. Technically masterful, emotionally flat.
When I was recruiting as a young sales manager, it seemed every spring my closing percentage would drop off around April. I got frustrated. Inevitably, I lamented, “I’m not doing anything different—my presentation is exactly the same as it’s always been! I don’t know what’s wrong.” My sales director would fly in, watch me do a presentation, and say, “No enthusiasm.” Every year I’d then make the fix and my results improved.
If your sales have dropped off, or your recruiting is not up to your own high standards, take a look in the mirror, it may be time for an infusion of emotion and a winning attitude. Take a lesson from the New Orleans football franchise. Now all the Colts fans can rail on me. That’s what the comments are for…. As a bonus, here’s a sample of Drew Brees getting his team ready emotionally.
Focus. What do you focus on? This blog seemed to tie in to Valentine’s Day coming up, so…
How can you fall out of love with your job? At Southwestern, you can notice how few people say yes, on the heat, on random negative thoughts, on how you dislike the feeling of failure, on the weight of your bookbag. If this is what you notice–what you give your attention to–soon, you will be falling out of love with your sales job.
Now to your significant other. Remember all the habits that you once found cute, or overlooked? His inability to ask for directions, his talking with his mouth full, his leaving his dirty clothes all over the floor? Early on in your relationship, you overlooked these foibles and concentrated on what you loved about him. You were noticing his strengths and ignoring his weaknesses. (You could fix those up later, right?)
Now, what you ignored you notice–all those habits become irritations. The crumbs on the counter, never replacing the toilet paper roll, all the time he spends with his friends…what a schmuck! (How did I ever like him?) You are noticing what you don’t like. You will fall out of love at some point and may not know why!
So, since this is a sales blog and not eHarmony, it might be time to refocus your focus–in other words, if you’re tired of your sales career, you may want to notice what you’re noticing. You may need to decide to be grateful.
Here are a few good questions to ask yourself at the end of the day:
What have I given today? (not gotten, given)
What have I learned today? (people who are learning are liking what they do)
How has today been an investment for my future? (not just a day closer to the weekend)
What do I love about what I do?
After you have been in a love relationship or a career for awhile, the shiny newness tends to wear off. When it does–and it will–you have to be deliberate in your focus. You have to affirm what you want, consciously. Left to my own devices, my mind automatically drifts into negativity. It’s far easier for me to notice what’s wrong than what’s right. Are you like this? I have to consciously make an effort. At times, I have to notice what I like/love about my job–and my wife. I’m sure she has to do the same.
A sales career, a loving relationship–both take energy and investment to work over the long haul. Action point: Send your sales opportunity some flowers or a nice box of chocolates. It deserves it.
I welcome your thoughts and comments. What are your strategies to stay in love with what you do?
This is something I probably say 50 times during each checkout season at Southwestern. During that time, hundreds of student salespeople are finishing their summers and are considering returning for another summer. Or not.
“I think I could learn this stuff somewhere else.”
“I don’t like selling.”
“I hated it.”
True, more or less. But what I often remind them about is that our program didn’t create the personal shortcomings they experienced—it simply revealed them. Difficult circumstances reveal what you’re made of. So we (I do the same thing) tend to rationalize away our sub-par behavior and blame our situation.
“Southwestern made me this way.” Nope, sorry. Southwestern (better yet, the challenges) revealed your character.
Oftentimes, the desire to move on to other opportunities is another form of “the grass is greener” syndrome. You can change your job, you can switch your role, you can get a different spouse–but you still have to live with yourself. You take your luggage with you.
If only the weather were better, people were friendlier, there were more folks employed, less traffic, a different administration, better prospects, a new sales territory…we’d probably be happy right where we are. The problem is there’s too much pressure here, too many frustrations. The answer seems simple enough—move, switch, change jobs, quit!
The problem is that when we move on in our search, we take ourselves along. Where we are is where we’ve chosen to be. If we don’t look at ourselves, we’ll choose the same people & predicaments again.
There is enormous freedom in realizing this truth. So, own up. Remember, you take your luggage with you.
Whether you are prospecting for new business or looking for work, a networking event is a great way to establish new contacts. As you recall in our last exciting episode, I had waded into a networking function, sponsored by the 
Have you ever walked into a large party, and moved toward the first familiar face you saw? Or maybe you’ve been to a big conference that sponsored a social event. If you work with The Southwestern Company, you get good at meeting people and making good first impressions in their homes. But what about approaching people in a larger professional setting? 
Southwestern IS: A company started in 1868. To someone who’s never worked with us before Southwestern is a summer program for college age students.
(OK. I’m taking a bit of blogging license here, so relax, dear readers.) 
Burgess stressed how, as an author, you worked, you wrote, you typed, every day. Your inspiration, your creativity, listening for your muse–were all secondary to the task of sitting down and working. (He also proposed that part of the author’s daily damnation was to become famous for your worst work–in this case for his Clockwork novel, but again that’s for another literary blog.)
Flip a coin. Flip it again. And flip it 15 times after that. What are the chances that it landed on heads all 17 times? Slim to none, I’d guess. 
This is something I probably say 50 times during each checkout season at 
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