Unlike other performance athletes ― salespeople are expected to compete forty eight weeks or more every year.

Nearly all performance sports are structured in a way so that the athlete actually competes at a small fraction of their time in comparison to the time spent developing strategy, refining skills and training and recovering.

Sales managers for some bizarre reason believe their salespeople needn’t subscribe to the same approach. This false belief limits their sales people’s success and ultimately leads to fatigue and underperformance.

To be at their best salespeople need to be fresh in mind, body and spirit. When we are tired and under mental stress, not only does our performance suffer but the pleasures associated with what we do diminish, rapidly. I habitually ask salespeople with low motivation levels, ‘if they were succeeding more would they be more motivated?’ The overwhelming response is always a resounding, ‘yes!’

In many cases, it’s not the company nor the role a salesperson is unsatisfied with, it’s the fact they are not receiving validation for effort. As a sales manager, be sure to understand what is truly motivating your team (and individuals within it) as this could mean the difference between a salesperson becoming your best asset as opposed to leaving and becoming your competitor’s advantage.

It’s common for a CFO, or sales manager that possesses little or no relevant sales experience, to be the person who sets the annual sales budget and target. These figures are pulled from the ether and usually based on leveraging costs and profit percentage increases. In this case, there is scant regard for what constitutes a realistic target that also factors in changes in the economy. As a result targets rarely go down from year-to-year, instead they usually track north. Meaning, salespeople are forced to run themselves into the ground chasing shadows without regular timeouts to reflect, refine, and rejuvenate.

The old cliché; ‘people dont leave a company they leave a manager’ is correct. So too, salespeople leave a sales manager, particularly those that set pie in the sky expectations that stifle validation.

Give your best people the support they need with habitual training, realistic goals, related incentives, guiding processes, and most of all inspirational leadership. Let them take some space to rest and refine their strategy when they need it. This will result in greater stamina, enhanced performance and ultimately more sales.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan

Sales Training

More hands can make light work. Yet, often more hands only equates to more work.

When too many people are involved in a decision making process it becomes counterintuitive. Double handling frequently occurs so insecure managers are given a false sense of control. And it’s not difficult to get bogged down in bureaucracy and internal politics either.

Sometimes you’ve just got to go it alone. Particularly if you have no one around you prepared to strive for excellence with you. In that case, take the bloodied bull by the horns and put yourself out there!

Make a stand and take a calculated risk or two. This could mean being brave enough to find a company more aligned with your values, even if it means taking a pay cut or leaving your peers. Or if you genuinely believe you can do a better job than the company that employs you—do it yourself and determine your own destiny.

Do you really need a business partner, or is it fear of the unknown and safety in numbers mentality limiting your reality? Is it really worth enduring an overbearing boss who has no respect for you? I think you’re better than that.

Cash flow, resources, credibility, security and fear are all things that can be created or overcome. But it takes courage, a belief in your own ability and plenty of determination!  With the right plan and amount of patience anything is possible.

Granted, this is not a safe path for some of us, but for those made of the right stuff—it’s the only course of action. Sometimes you’ve just got to go it alone.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan

Sales Training

In a panicked state, I exited the terminal three hours late after my flight was delayed due to fog and inclement weather

I rushed to pick up my hire car while apologising over the phone to my client and assuring her I wasn’t far away.

Bleeding beads of frustration I anxiously took the sixty minute trek to my new business pitch.  Being late to a key presentation seldom sets a positive tone and negative first impressions are always challenging to overcome. Driving with a sense of defeat, I questioned whether my many hours of preparation, flight and now pained efforts would be all in vein.

My sat-nav directed me safely through fog to my destination. I pulled-up, checked in with reception and after a quick set-up ― launched into my presentation!

It’s easy to blame factors beyond your control for letting people down. In this instance, I could have confidently blamed the airline, but I didn’t. Interestingly, Qantas failed to offer even a token gesture for inconveniencing their passengers. In particular, those who delayed others or missed meetings altogether and some no doubt lost money or goodwill as a result.

In my introduction, I not only apologised to the ten stakeholders who came in especially and rearranged their schedules to meet with me ― I offered a gesture of goodwill to demonstrate my regret. They all accepted and appeared comfortable with my barter. This gesture will cost me, though the price is insignificant for their trust and tenure.

It is one thing to make an apology ― quite another to do something about it. If you let a prospect or client down, even when circumstances are out of your control, do your best to demonstrate your disappointed. Offer a discount, something low cost but of high perceived value or something small yet meaningful.

Often a sorry just won’t cut it so make your apology real and tangible. This helps to rebuild goodwill and you may just turn your negative into a positive. Correcting an error in a thoughtful way can and usually does galvanize your relationship and makes it even stronger.

You will be pleased to know a few days later this client gave me the go ahead.

Just shut up! You had me at hello.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan                                 Sales Training

Tuesday night I watched a feature on A Current Affair about an Australian charlatan by the name of A J Miller

This fruit cake and his female partner claim to be incarnations of Biblical characters Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.

What struck me most about this quack was how confident and articulate he was when questioned about the substance of his beliefs and teachings. Even scarier, there were people at his events and many zealous believers of his mind-numbing escapades.

Miller is one in a long line of people that successfully prey on the hearts and faculties of those in a desperate search for meaning. Often, offering a notion of solace and simplicity for vulnerable people seeking answers to come to terms with a complex and intimidating world.

Salivation, peace of mind and a transformational experience are always products spruiked to the masses fervently by these champions of exploitation. You and I won’t fall for it. Sadly many do. Sometimes parting with their life savings to kiss the sweet lips of enlightenment and taste a more meaningful life.

Salespeople have much to learn from the likes of A J Miller, for the most part what not to do.

Taken from a cross-section of cult organising approaches, here’s a step by step process to develop a cult like following:

Step I: Keep your message simple and vague and open to interpretation.

Step 2: Communicate in extremes and take people to a place where emotions overwhelm logic.

Step 4: Pick a fight by creating an Us versus Them mentality.

Step 5: Isolate the group from external influences and sell your message subtly as often as possible.

Step 6: Build a community of uneducated and vulnerable people and re-educate them with secret knowledge and foster a sense of commonality and false hope.

Step 7: Promote yourself as a not for profit organisation, spruiking principles before profits.

Step 8: Engage your audience daily or weekly, if you tell the same lie for long enough, you and others will start to believe it.

Step 9: Keep your audience in a state of need by drip feeding them information that promises more, but in reality delivers the same information regurgitated.

Step 10: Foresee an impending event or an experience that will change their life dramatically forever.

Step 11: Offer a guarantee no matter how ridiculous the outcome, i.e. “I made $1.2 Million in my first year and you can too!” Those with weak constitutions need a shepherd.

Step 12: Only sell something whereby the benefits are extraordinary yet impossible to measure.

So there you have it, you are now just as qualified as someone like AJ Miller to go out into the world and peddle a message of false hope.

However, if you genuinely desire to add-value to people’s lives and build a long and distinguished career in sales, simply do the contrary to the above principles.

Here are some examples to get you started:

Step I: Keep your message clear and concise and always from a place of contribution.

Step 2: Connect with peoples emotions to reinforce their logic.

Step 4: Be inclusive and demonstrate there is enough for everyone including competitors.

Step 5: Use testimonials and references to reinforce your value proposition.

Step 6: Build a community of like-minded people who share and collaborate this includes clients and colleagues.

Step 7: Promote yourself as a profit based organisation that values people.

Step 8: Engage your audience when appropriate. Dont over-communicate, as this approach trains the people you need to influence, to ignore you.

Step 9: Empower your clients to not need you; however they chose to work with you.

Step 10: Everyday including today is an opportunity to change people’s lives.

Step 11: There are no guarantees in this world. If customers need this perhaps the risk over-rides their reward. Get comfortable with saying “no” to customers.

Step 12: Benefits must be tangible and measurable and as a vendor always be accountable.

Now go-forth and multiply!

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan                                         Sales Training

Selling is a contact sport and when it comes to competitors it should be full body contact!

Competition serves the collective good. Merchants are kept on their toes and customers are able to select a provider that best meets their needs or desires. Many business people underestimate their competitors ― pretending they don’t exist or their offer is irrelevant or somehow inferior. Dont make that mistake.

By default, we often frame competitors as the enemy. We’ve never met them, nor do we want to. If they’re flying a flag with a different brand ― they’re evil! This belief is not only ignorant, it’s limiting and ultimately self-defeating.

Call me mad, but I recommend meeting with competitor’s periodically. Invite them for coffee or chat over the phone. Learn what they are up to. How do they communicate and what do they really stand for? What’s their story and where are they headed?  Are they savvy, innovative, polished or coarse? This amongst other information is important to know.

Here’s why… If you know what’s really beneath your competitor’s facade this helps you to understand how to position yourself in either a contrasting or more meaningful light. And as far as your competitor is concerned, well these benefits are mutual and you both may add value to your business as a result.

Competitors’ responses commonly fall into three distinct categories:

1. Closed and Aggressive
2. Passive and Indifferent
3. Open and Collaborative

Misguided by tradition, we can be guilty of herding all competitors into Category 1. Competitors in this class generally come from a place of fear, scarcity and many overtly self-righteous. You will establish this when you make contact and receive nil response or a retort. Leave these competitors to fester in their own ignorance, or hunt and destroy them, it’s up to you.

If you are willing to make the effort and initiate contact with competitors you will find that most fall into Category 2. These types are somewhat myopic but rarely sinister. Not ones to think too much about competitors or be strategic. Safely share your inner most secrets with them, they won’t use it against you. They are frequently content and quite happy where they are in the pecking order.

Category 3 is not only a characterization it’s a way of being. Usually competitors in this grouping have realised there is enough for everyone. They also know how competition serves them and their customers. Less than ten percent of companies are in this category. The majority of others are not capable of understanding how collaborating and sharing knowledge with a “perceived” enemy can serve them and others.

Medical specialists are skilled proponents of this approach. They dont take on a procedure outside their expertise, habituably referring to someone more qualified. In addition, they regularly seek expert council from others specialists. Their resolve is always creating the right outcome for the patient. People’s lives and health are at stake. What a powerful way of operating. Aren’t your customers that important? If not they should be.

In my own business, I regularly make contact with competitors and when appropriate refer them business. I’ve learnt a hell of a lot from some of them. Sometimes not what to do, other times I’ve been given insights and ideas to help develop my business, which I’m grateful for.

Establishing connections with competitors in different markets or geographic regions, you’re not active in, enables you to cross-pollinate best practices and leverage IP.  This mutually enhances knowledge and capability and serves the best interests of customers.

Time for Action!

I encourage you to make contact with no less than “3” key competitors you respect and request a catch-up either over the phone, or better, in person.

When you meet come from a place of contribution and commonality, and if possible, try to help them in some way.

You will invariably find your competitors are facing the same challenges as you, and you have a lot more in common than you think. Some may even become friends, heaven forbid.

Happy hunting!

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan

Sales Training

It doesn’t take any real skill in business to sell your soul and get paid.

I’ve been guilty of it, and if you’ve been in sales long enough its likely you have at times too. Countless salespeople follow this seductive and destructive path their entire careers and many are happy doing it.

When bills are bleeding us dry we often resolve to do anything to survive. An alternative is to simply do nothing and let the salivating jaws of procrastination consume us.

Another is to spring into action and carve a path that allows us to live dreams and monetize passion. Of course, never an easy road, yet one of the most rewarding if you have the courage to have a go and see it through.

When we’re under duress it’s easy to feel there is no choice but to take what we can. Sometimes overlooking unethical behaviour or turning a blind eye to poor business practices around us. Should that be the case, it will only be a matter of time before your conscience catches up with you.

Meaningless service, over charging, mistreatment of staff, inferior quality, lack of duty to customers and greed driven leaders are all signs of a business without conscience.

It is unwise to suffer fools and foolish to cast suffering upon others.

The business highway is littered with carcasses of those who seek only to profit in their endeavours and will resort to any means to fulfil their own agendas.

I say take the next exit. You dont need a map, just trust your instincts and believe in yourself.

You can lose many things, but never your conscience.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan Sales  Training

An ex-business partner of mine would declare in an ominous tone, “Keep them hungry!

He would achieve that by paying staff late or reneging on owed commissions.

Dripping with resentment because of that treatment many staff resigned, while others low in self-esteem and desperate would accept reduced commission to simply pay bills and survive.

Harry played dirty and as a consequence our business partnership dissolved. I believe people can be more motivated when they’re hungry.  However, what I refuse to support is forcing hunger upon others.

I remember a story from my old mentor Big Kev. He told me about a period in his life when he didn’t even have enough money to put food on his family’s table. Needing to eat, he approached a local butcher with a business proposition: To spruik outside the store (as only Big Kev could) in exchange for meat. Talk about bringing home the bacon! And he did.

Kev’s story is one of desperation but also imagination.  Sometimes all you need to do is buy time which means thinking outside the box and putting food on your table.

I can safely assure, if you can’t get hungry for your success, no one will do it for you. Business is tough out there and competition fierce. Hunger drives progress and innovation and it also gets things done. Hunger is what’s needed today more than ever.

I revel in taking on more established competitors because I know for many, the hunger is gone. The larger a company is, usually the more bloated and complacent—leaving the door ajar for hungry people like you and me.

Dont wait for those around you to get an appetite, even if they’re not remotely peckish, that shouldn’t stop you. Eat, drink and be merry, but not before the hard yards and goals are achieved—then feast!

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan                    Sales Training Sales Books

Every time I take a flight I’m mildly entertained by the same trite safety spiel, which contains a statement I think transcends the aviation industry:

“In event of emergency, first place the oxygen mask over your face, and only then over your child’s.”

To do so may appear initially as a selfish act , but it expresses you need to save yourself first in order to stay conscious and alert to save your most cherished.

There is no shortage of people out there striving to save the world, which is an admirable ambition, just make sure you put food on your table first.

I know business professionals that are competent in their craft yet fail to demonstrate it for their own promotional purposes. Think of a landscape gardener’s house surrounded with feral foliage, a dentist with pungent breath, or a search engine marketer not first page on Google.  If these people fail to demonstrate their skills for themselves, what does that say about their commitment to their customers?

If your aim is to charge a fee for service, you are more influential when you demonstrate how you utilise the service in your life. Similarly, if you’re selling a product you need to implicitly understand its value and benefits.  Sometime ago, I met with a web company that claimed to specialise in social networking, however a quick review of the strategy they implemented for their business revealed they barely qualified to even talk about the subject.

Often a lack of credibility cripples a start-up business. No proven track record and limited relevant experience are overt risks to a potential suitor. Although you may not have the big names on board just yet, that shouldn’t stop you demonstrating how you utilise your own skills.

If you’re a realtor, own your own properties—start as small as you need to. If this suburb really is the next boom area, why aren’t “you” in this market already? If you’re a web developer, show me a world class website, all it should cost is your creativity, resources and time. Mr financial planner, I want to know about “your” asset portfolio and the risks you took and overcame to achieve personal wealth.

If you can’t save yourself, dont expect others to pay you to save them.

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan           Sales Training          Sales Book

To project to others that we are always happy, having fun and in a positive frame of mind every day is just pure fantasy.

We all feel pain and frustration and all of us most certainly feel fear. In fact, for many of us, fear defines who we are and our corresponding thoughts and behaviours are governed by fear’s close relatives: anxiety, procrastination, stress and worry.

Let’s explore fear a little closer. What is fear? Fear results from the threat or potential to experience pain. What is pain? Pain is the sensation felt when the brain releases certain bio-chemicals in our body to alert us of physical danger — such as cutting our skin or breaking our arm. Pain preserves us from continuing to harm ourselves once injured in some way.

This biological mechanism is brilliant. However there is one flaw in this program: Regardless of whether the threat is actually real or not, we still experience the same bio-chemical charges that fear sets off in our brains. How many of us have feared something that never ends up happening? The threat of impending pain can be too much to stand for some people, who, as a consequence, become bound and confined by fear. We then become fearful of fear.

So how does fear relate to being a salesman? It has everything to do with it. Fear, according to many experts, is a great motivator, and breaking free of it has everything to do with being successful. Do you fear being wrong? Do you fear being judged? Do you fear not fitting in? Do you fear being rejected? Do you fear failure?

Of course you do. I do. We all do. But don’t let fear be your master. Don’t let it control you, control it. Being conscious of your fear and actually conforming to it are two very separate things. Consider the following: What would your sales role and business be like with less fear?  And how would your customers feel with no fear from buying from you?

If you remove fear from your sales role and your customers’ experience, your business will transform magically and you would probably do things radically different to the way you do things today. Without fear to hold you back, you can have a red hot crack! And love every minute of it.

Fear serves us in ways, but also limits us in others. Fear keeps a young child from crossing a busy street and entering into harm’s way. But that same fear twenty years on restrains a potentially powerful woman from stepping off the curb and taking on her dreams. Let fear, pain and defeat be your allies. Embrace them and you embrace life. Deny collaborating with these allies and you deny the opportunity to be all you can be.

Seek fear out! Go looking for it, I dare you.  Find if before it finds you.  Understand why you fear the things you fear and how these fears limit your capacity to be, do and have more in life. Fear is an illusion if you choose to see and believe it as such. 

So pick up the phone and make that call! Get in the car and drive to your opportunity. Go to your customers if they won’t cont come to you.  Make it happen!In that meeting today, don’t just present — ask for the order! What’s stopping you? If you understand how fear serves you— nothing will!

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan, Founder BOOM! Sales and Author of, The Naked Salesman

This week Aussie model and aspiring social worker, Jesinta Campbell was decorated with the second runners-up sash in the prestigious Miss Universe pageant.

She also won the award for ‘Miss Congeniality’ for her sense of humour and warm personality. Good on her! I’ll admit, when I heard Jesinta had been recognised for her personality; I was more impressed by that, than her third place in the pageant. The fact her personality shone so brightly, in my mind, makes her more attractive and more interesting.

In “sales”, all things being equal—personality wins! To stand out in a cold, crowded and competitive market you can differentiate by showing your personality and inviting your customers in, rather than telling them what door they should walk through. In the process you offer contrast that gives them choice—either the same or you?

When you play the ‘same game’, you become boring and mundane and your customers will walk straight past. Moreover, if they stop, you dont have a way of proving you’re any different to anyone else, so the relationship defaults to price. Enter price comparison at your own risk.

Granted, you may very well be boring; that’s always relative. Be that as it may, you still need to bring more of yourself to what you do. You dont have to be overtly gregarious to be personable, you can bring more personality to the way you do things or come up with unique and interesting ways to present ideas and encapsulate your value in different ways.

If you choose to dilute your personality in a blatant attempt to be all things to all people— you start playing the ‘same game’. This game becomes the graveyard for inauthentic people, who choose the road most travelled, rather than ‘baring all’ and showing the world who they really are and what’s truly important to them.

Actions to bring more personality to the ‘same game’:

• Never underestimate the power of humour – laughing is living!
• Share things about you that give people a real sense of who you are
• Be vulnerable by showing your scars and being real
• Stop selling and start listening and engaging people in a meaningful way
• People are drawn to positive energy, so be positive!
• Be conscious of your energy and how it impacts others
• Be genuinely interested in the best interests of others
• Follow a career that allows you to be yourself and stay true, always.

Most salespeople get the cold shoulder from customers everyday in different ways. “Brrrrrrrrrrrrr… It’s bloody cold in here!” When you ‘bare all’ for your customers, you may get cold sometimes, but it sure beats the heck out of freezing all the time! 

Inspire,

Trent Leyshan, Founder of BOOM! Sales