by Tech Support | Jul 25, 2013 | Sales
Time is a limited resource. Golda Meir said: “I must govern the clock, not be governed by it”.
This week as I began a ten day, 8 city trek, I panicked. I found myself making that list on the plane Tuesday morning. You know that list right, the one where you start detailing all the things that must be done. Usually that list is long and there is this overwhelming feeling about where do you start!
I took a breath and knew that I am the master of getting things done and that there is this wonderful exercise that helps me prioritize. It works like this. You put everything on the list in a single column. Here’s an example:
| Task |
Time |
Priority Ranking |
Order |
| Write the Newsletter |
1 Hour |
11 |
4 |
| Book car for Detroit |
5 min |
|
|
| Complete Training |
1 hour |
1111 |
5 |
| Coaching Call 1 |
1 hour |
1111 |
3A |
| Coaching Call 2 |
1 Hour |
111 |
2 |
| Store Visit 1 |
2.5 hours |
11111 |
1 |
| Store Visit 2 |
2.5 hours |
111 |
3B |
Once you get the list made, you go back and assign the time it will take for completing each item. Then the real magic for prioritizing happens when you do the following. I wanted to create a little video and show you what I meant rather than tell you in words-but you may have guessed it… I did not have the time!
What you see up above are all of the actual steps to take. Create the priority by first taking the top item on the list and comparing it to all the other items on the list. So you look at the list and you say, “do I need to write the newsletter more than booking the car for Detroit”. In this case, the newsletter needs to be completed before the car is rented so the newsletter gets the mark. Next, ask yourself, write the newsletter or complete training. Both of those are really important, they both have a Thursday morning deadline, however, I could push the complete training to the weekend if absolutely necessary… so write the newsletter gets the mark. Next you go down to the second thing on the list and repeat the exercise for everything below item number two. Move on to number three-You get the picture?
I’ve completed the list above and it is easy to see the priority of how things have to happen. This list above would be pretty easy and if this would have been my actual Tuesday through Thursday I don’t think I would have panicked. However, the reality is that I had to have a real “come to Jesus” talk with myself and the realistic concept of time.
Initially I thought, piece of cake. I had booked myself out for 54 hours during the next 72. I even jotted down, “I’ve got this” and if you look closely you’ll see that I marked through that bit of encouragement. I realized that by the time the plane landed 11 hours of Tuesday were already gone AND I changed time zones and lost an hour! So now I have 60 hours to complete the 54 hours of stuff I really felt like needed to be done by end of day Thursday. I had calculated 24 hours of rest. So I quickly decided that I could do just fine with 6 or 7 hours of sleep-8 hours of sleep is just not needed under the current circumstances. Ok that was a little ridiculous. I’m negotiating with myself about the amount of time I can sleep!
I figured that any phone calls I needed to make I could make in the car. I have about 12 hours of drive time. That didn’t work so well because if you have T-Mobile and you are driving through the Daniel Boone Forrest in KY you don’t have reliable cell phone service!
On Wednesday night I was delighted to discover at 10:00 pm that I had actually moved back into the central time zone and got that hour back that I lost the day before. I got up a little earlier Wednesday and Thursday morning and gained a few minutes. I never reached for the TV because there’s NO time for TV-no real loss there. AND I had to add 2 more forgotten hours in to manage exercise because I’m not giving that up!
Here’s my struggle, after about 9:00 pm, I’m as dull as dirt. OK here’s another struggle worse than needing to call it quits after 9:00 pm. I did not count on all the new things that would come up during each day. I’m smarter than that; but I did not take any of the normal or extra day to day things that would come up.
So, here’s the reality. Everything that was scheduled as an appointment, got done. I have exactly 19 hours left. (not really, I can’t stay up until midnight-and I’ll lose that “time zone” hour again today because I move back into the EST). I’m not discouraged; but I am faced with the fact that some of the things on that list have to move and that I need a new list today with all the new commitments that I’ve made over the last two days.
I guess on of the big lessons here is that in addition to putting things on a perfectly prioritized list… I have to actually transfer those things to my actual calendar and schedule an appointment to get them done. I’m not giving you a picture of my calendar. It would make you throw up.
Listen, I’m looking for suggestions. I’m no time management wizard. I do get a lot of things done. I’m interested in high performance and getting the most out of life. However, I’d like to follow Golda Meir’s words of wisdom and not be governed by the clock. HELP… leave any of your own words of wisdom here-PLEASE!
by Tech Support | Jul 17, 2013 | Sales
This week’s coaching topic was about Overcoming Objections. In my free time, I like to try new hobbies and careers. This gets me into trouble with my calendar but I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. Since the spring I’ve been trying my hand at being a wedding planner part time. Part of my role is to sell wedding packages to brides and their families. How lucky am I to have had TrainerTainment style sales training?
We’ve talked about objections this week and everyone is always talking about price. At the first hint of a price objection, untrained sales people will try to find ways to drop the price. But, price is most likely not the real issue, my friends. Think about yourself, if you want something, really want it, isn’t there a good chance you’re going to find a way to make that purchase? And if you can see the value in the product, won’t you buy it sooner than later? We know our product’s value, and you know what it can do to help people, so it’s our job as sales people to show how we can help our customer.
I recently met a lovely couple who wants a September wedding for 85 people. Before going into what my venue has to offer, we sat down and talked about the day in their minds. Asking the right qualifying questions is the best way to overcome objections…before they happen! Find out what the perfect event for their darling (groom, spouse, fundraising group, birthday boy, bachelorette) looks like in their minds. Then, sell them that.
The bride’s first answer to my question about what they saw for their big day was, “budget.” When you get this, resist the urge to launch into your prices or ask the dreaded “what’s your budget?” questions. Your price is always too high and their budget is always too low if discussed in the beginning of the meeting. Gone is the day when your customer tells you, “anything my little darling wants, the sky’s the limit! Spare no expense!” Of course there is a budget, and you most likely have something that will ultimately fit it. However, hear what your customer is telling you. She’s not telling you she wants the cheapest package (though she might), what she’s really telling you is that you need to show her the value of what she’s buying. Keep this in mind for your presentation, because you’re going to need to be clear.
Once we got to the packages, planned the event in their mind (it’s a beautiful wedding, I can assure you), the groom started to worry a little that he didn’t have all the information to make an informed decision. Enter the stall. “Well maybe we need to talk it over a little before we decide.” Resist the urge to bow out right away and give up!
But, be careful not come on too strong. Few things turn a prospective customer off like overly pushy sales people. You want to 1) be respectful, “I absolutely understand, what questions do you have that I can answer?” and 2) find out more “how are you feeling about the event?” Both are great questions to try and get to the heart of the objection. I learned that my bride and groom wanted the time of our middle package but didn’t have enough to still provide the meal that they wanted. So I had to qualify a bit more, find out what kind of meal they were really looking for and I was able to offer an appetizer menu that met their needs of menu variety and saved a bit on the cost. By listening, and being genuinely interested in their experience, I was able to present them with options that met their needs. It’s not just about the actual dollars, think creatively in terms of dates and times, meal options, game play, etc.
Sometimes the stall can turn into the subtle objection – we don’t get the booking on the first call and have to call them back. And then email. And then call them again. Are they ignoring us? It’s hard to know, but some tips are to set up a time to reconnect BEFORE the initial meeting is over. Then if you’re forced to leave messages, give times when you will be calling back if you don’t hear from them. Be polite and positive always. Sometimes, as we talked about this week, we have to be clear and say, “thank you so much for telling me that, if you were going to sacrifice a little on price, quality or service, which one would it be?” Many times it will be price, but if it’s quality, you might be able to offer less food options, reduced game play, if it’s service, well maybe you can offer to throw a drink on them. Kidding! But you might have a rental type offering.
Sometimes when I make a sales mistake that makes me kick myself 100 times is my failure to appropriately handle “The Quiet Game.” To me, there is nothing worse than going on and on about how much fun everyone’s going to have at this event, to then pause and look expectantly at my prospective client and have him say…nothing. Not a word. I have had to teach myself and REMIND myself not to transition into word-vomit mode. Do not fear the silence! It’s not a date! You don’t have to worry that he’s not going to think you’re interesting if you don’t fill every moment. Smile, pause, count to ten if you have to. Then to five more. THEN, instead of re-presenting, say something like, “I’ve talked a lot, I’d love to know your thoughts…” and then wait. They’ll usually tell you! And from there, you’ll be able to know what’s holding them back from booking their dream event, and you can help them.
My couple, they ended up booking an evening wedding for 85 people, went with the top of the line appetizers and the middle wedding package that we offered. Don’t you just love marrying the right package with the right people? I DO.
As always we we would love to hear your feedback below or on Facebook!
Sherry Howell
Project Manager/Trainer
by Tech Support | Jul 3, 2013 | Sales
Bizarre title I know. Thanks for opening this email. Last week we attended Bowl Expo. What a GREAT show! I was full of joy about EVERYTHING!
At the end of the first trade show day the most interesting thing happened. The show always winds down and fewer people come by the booth during the last hour of the show. That gives us all time to get a little goofy. My entire team was at this show and they were AWESOME.
So awesome that at the end of this first day, Dave was jumping up and clicking his heels together. That looked like something I could do too and I did! A friend of ours in a booth around the corner began to make a little fun of me. I took it to mean that he may have thought I was too old to jump in the air and click my heels together. SOOOOO I popped off and said something like, “Well if you think that was a big deal just watch me do a cartwheel!”
Now I don’t know about you but for me I was completely confident I could do this cartwheel. When my girls played softball I would do a cartwheel anytime one of the players on the team hit a homerun. My friend, Jim Welch, reminded me that my daughters were NOW in their 30’s. That is not something I considered as a backed up to get the running start that I believed I needed to complete this cartwheel that I was certain I could do! There was NO doubt in my mind that I could complete this acrobatic move.
With some encouragement from our team, and some antagonism from others, there was no turning back. We had had a great day. I was very joyful and confident. I NEVER considered that there would be a single problem with hurling my sizable body over and up to perform this cheerleader feat!
So imagine this…I back up, and then back up a little further. Then the moment of truth. I run (or what I call run) several steps, the time comes; and I invert my body, hands to the ground with a beautiful spring into the air, legs fly up, and ALMOST over. OK my right leg and glute actually protested. And by protested I mean they insisted that I had made a horrible mistake! I only made it about two thirds of the way over and then crashed (yes that an accurate description) to the ground.
I’m still limping, 7 days later. It didn’t stop me from doing the Cupid Shuffle later that night but I will tell you that I’m VERY sore. I wonder how long it takes for a “cartwheel” glute and a hamstring to heal.
Scott Drummond, from Party Center Software-the antagonist, coined the term “Old Fartwheel”, which I think is pretty accurate. Thad our sales guy rated my flip a 5.2 as a reminder of my age. I’ve had a massage and am applying Tiger Balm often.
The real lesson for me is that just because you think you can it’s probably still a good idea to get some training first or at least stretch a bit!
It was great to see you all at Bowl Expo. I know we have a ton of training in the next several months and can’t wait to see you all again.
My final thought for the day is that confidence is a good thing-Mix it with a little wisdom and you’ve got something more than a torn butt muscle! I’m working on that wisdom piece every day.
Have a great Wednesday ,As always we would love to hear your feedback! Share your thoughts with us on our Facebook page.
Beth
