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Bill Blades Philosophy on Boot Camps
In 1966, I joined the Army so that my name would forever be placed on walls with legendary war figures like John Wayne.What's wrong with this scenario? John Wayne never actually fought in a war - he just made movies. I did, however, go to boot camp. You just would not send a soldier into battle without this valuable 8 week training program. Nor would you send them into battle without 8 additional weeks of advanced infantry training.
If my math is okay, the Army provides a minimum 16 weeks of training before they send you out as a rookie rifleman. Yet, many businesses never provide high quality sales skills training/education for their troopers. And, they want to know why they are being killed in the market place. Everyone needs survival skills.
Survival Skills
- Your group must have good (or great) interpersonal skills. Make sure your men and women are good at the following:
- Listening much more than talking. Clients, on average, only have a 3 sentence attention span, so - hush!
- Adapting their own personality to suit their clients' various personalities. Using only one sales style won't work.
- Providing fun and excitement for their clients. I like being around people who brighten my day. Clients feel the same way.
- Your group must harness time. Use time wisely - think of it as money because it is.
- Where can each individual pick up 5 minutes a day? No big deal, you say? 5 minutes a day is 20 1/2 hours annually. Your big challenge, however, is that my studies show that the average sales person loses 3 1/2 hours daily!
- Focus, focus, focus. In other words, major time with major clients and minor time with minor clients. Identify those you want to land and keep forever. Then lay out the steps to make it happen.
- make time for regular prospecting. It is the lifeblood of every sales organization. Clients go out of business and they sell their business with both of these being out of your control. You can, however, keep new business coming all the time.
- Work harder on yourself than you do for your boss.
- How many books written for the sales profession did you read last year? How many should you have read? Unfortunately, most people spend more on the outside of their head (hair cuts, shampoo, etc.) than they invest on the inside of their head (brain).
- Be a full time student of your profession and your industry. Casual students get casual results and serious students get serious results.
- If you are earning $50,000.00 and you want to earn $100,000.00, study $100,000.00 earners. In other words, if you want $100,000.00 you must think and act like a $100,000.00 earner now. Today, tomorrow, next week, forever.
- If your company doesn't understand the return on quality training and education, invest in yourself. Your automobile is a university on wheels when you listen to audio tapes on your profession.
- Stop selling products and start being a consultant for your clients.
- Sales and margins go up when you think of and for clients all the time.
- Try hard to deliver a new idea every time you see a client. Not just ideas to help you sell something, but ideas that will be of interest and help to the client.
- Get your company to provide training for your clients. It is a gift of value and it will promote teamwork between the two firms.
Most sales people are stuck. They do not have enough bullets in their rifle. They did not clean out the gunk and polish it. I don't want these people in my outfit. And you should stay away from them. Go back to basic training. Get yourself mentally fit. Remember, boot camp is 8 weeks long. Why not lay out 8 weeks of reading, prospecting, listening to audio tapes, getting up an hour earlier and staying an hour later. Sound too hard? Then start by planning the best 8 hours out of all next week. Just 8 hours of suggestions in the previous paragraph.
If you can't or will not plan out those 8 hours, don't ever apply for a position with one of my clients. I don't want you in their foxhole. Boot camp comes every year.
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© 2002 - 2007 William Blades |
