A sticky SALESman thread

[boo7382]

Congrats! Sorry I missed your message. Sounds like you are well on your way.

There is probably not much I could offer you in the way of advice. Sales is about learning what works for you and discarding what doesn't. I'm sure you have been going through that the last 2 years and that experience is the best learning tool. As far as me, I take a more personal long term approach with my customers. I truly try to have their best interests in mind. Some industries don't require that approach and take a more one and done sales tactic. I prefer my method because it fits me. I even have customers that call me about my opinions on products that compete with mine and if I think the competition offers some good things I tell them. Of course I also tell them about the negatives.

The 10 Be's that I try to follow are:

Be accountable

Be accessible

Be a resource to my client

Be honest

Be persistent

Be observant

Be a consultant

Be willing to work for your customer

Be willing to learn

Be sexy in jorts

 

I am definitely checked on all of those- except for the jorts.....TEACH ME SENSEI!

 

Also I don't think I've ever seen a sales person turn down a free lunch.....but I am a girl (we LOVE going out to lunch) and really enjoy networking and also don't travel as much as you do. 

 

Can't really divulge too much on here (love you guys but you never know who's lurking), but its looking like now that I have 2 years of successful experience under my belt, boo will be looking into other things here soon. 

[Hotsauce]

Congrats! Sorry I missed your message. Sounds like you are well on your way.

There is probably not much I could offer you in the way of advice. Sales is about learning what works for you and discarding what doesn't. I'm sure you have been going through that the last 2 years and that experience is the best learning tool. As far as me, I take a more personal long term approach with my customers. I truly try to have their best interests in mind. Some industries don't require that approach and take a more one and done sales tactic. I prefer my method because it fits me. I even have customers that call me about my opinions on products that compete with mine and if I think the competition offers some good things I tell them. Of course I also tell them about the negatives.

The 10 Be's that I try to follow are:

Be accountable

Be accessible

Be a resource to my client

Be honest

Be persistent

Be observant

Be a consultant

Be willing to work for your customer

Be willing to learn

Be sexy in jorts

I see your 10 B's and raise you 5 D's

[Hotsauce]

I am so glad I finally saw this ^^^, I have been wondering exactly what it is you sold.

I actually reached out to you last month to see if I could take you to lunch and pick your brain on what you do and your experience with things, etc etc. All i had here was your Huddle name to send you a message lol.

Anyone else who is in Outside Sales and does any traveling and is making $100k+ per year I would love to ask you some questions!

B.Champ and I talked a lot during the 49ers game Tailgate. Thanks for letting me ask you questions for an hour!

Also- I wanted to say this here because you guys are the ones who will truly understand how awesome this is:

Our fiscal year ends in March.

Approaching the end of my 2nd full year here

As of Friday (1/31), I have OFFICIALLY MADE PRESIDENT'S CLUB BITCHESSSSSSSSSS

Pretty proud of myself, can ya tell?

I am very happy to hear you made PC, congrats!

That is an accomplishment no one will ever be able to take from you!

Should you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out!

[SCP]

I am definitely checked on all of those- except for the jorts.....TEACH ME SENSEI!

.

Well rule #1, stonewash is for communists and north Myrtle Beach half-back retirees. Rule #2, your legs and torso should be skinner than your upper body, almost like that villain from Despicable Me. Rule #3, sashe sashe sashe

[Kurb]

When I get a gig traveling can I post here too?

 

 

What is a presidents club?

[boo7382]

When I get a gig traveling can I post here too?

 

 

What is a presidents club?

 

Every sales organization has some version of it

 

Some call it winner's circle, president's club, president's cup, etc.

 

It basically means you are the poo as a salesperson :)

 

I believe its different with every company. With ours, you have your annual quota to hit (easy, thats your monthly times 12), then you have a higher number you can hit which is normally a percentage over 100. I think ours is 115% of your annual quota.

 

I think they normally make it so it's like the top 5% of salespeople in the company or something.

 

You make that, you get to go on a free trip, bring a guest (bf will get a free trip), and they have awards and dinners every night etc honoring the achievements from the past fiscal year. Basically to spoil your salespeople and thank them for busting their ass and keeping your company afloat for another year. 

 

Out in the wide world of sales, its kinda like your stamp of approval. If you have made PC, a hiring manager or fellow sales person knows that you have the ability to sell like a B.A.M.F.

 

I'm sure it also gives you the ability to turn to your upper management like SCP has and negotiate not being screwed over by your company commission-wise when you bring in a big deal.

[Panthro]

another mistake companies make is taking their best sales people and making them sales managers. most times they make the worst sales managers  plus the company has now lost productivity in the field

[Doyle]

another mistake companies make is taking their best sales people and making them sales managers. most times they make the worst sales managers  plus the company has now lost productivity in the field

 

I agree that's true in some cases.  I know my boss has no business in front of customers.  Zero.  He comes across as very arrogant and untrustworthy.  He is more of a numbers guy and needs to be looking at spreadsheets all day which he does for the most part.  I have to always come up with excuses as to why I need to go on meetings alone and it gets very awkward.  Our three largest customers have had to request that he not be a part of managing their account any longer.

 

On the flipside I really don't think I would want his job.  Who would want to crunch numbers all day?

[Panthro]

I personally love numbers. I can get lost in them. It's better than getting a RFP dropped on your lap with 500 responses asking the same damn question over and over again but just slightly different

[Hotsauce]

another mistake companies make is taking their best sales people and making them sales managers. most times they make the worst sales managers plus the company has now lost productivity in the field

When I was a rep, in 2010 I was the #2 rep in the company, 2011 #5, promoted to a manager in 2012 and my team finished #4, 2013 we are 72% AHEAD of our number and the #1 team in the company...all of my reps are top 10 in the company. Did I mention there are over 2500 reps in my company....

When I was promoted to a manager, I came in as a dynamite sales rep. All I did is find people like me, hired pure talent, built a team of winners. We crushed everyone and now we are on top.

But I agree with your logic, typically great reps make horrible managers because they are used to putting everything on their shoulders and winning by themselves. A great LEADER learns how to motivate individuals to replicate that same success and they must be able to delegate (which was hard for me).

[SCP]

I suck at delegating

[boo7382]

I agree that's true in some cases.  I know my boss has no business in front of customers.  Zero.  He comes across as very arrogant and untrustworthy.  He is more of a numbers guy and needs to be looking at spreadsheets all day which he does for the most part.  I have to always come up with excuses as to why I need to go on meetings alone and it gets very awkward.  Our three largest customers have had to request that he not be a part of managing their account any longer.

 

On the flipside I really don't think I would want his job.  Who would want to crunch numbers all day?

 

We have one guy that was a rep, put on as a manager, and then back down to a sales rep now.

 

Granted he is making more $$ than he was as a manager and claims he made the decision....

 

He is just like this person above and I wouldn't have even accepted a job here if he had been my hiring manager. I have actually taken over a territory where he used to work 4 or 5 years ago and all I do is put out fires out there because he pissed off and lied to SOOOO many customers.

 

Its difficult to me because I pride myself on being honest with my customers and supporting them instead of lying and never returning their phone calls after you sell something.

 

It just makes the company look bad as a whole.

 

When I was a rep, in 2010 I was the #2 rep in the company, 2011 #5, promoted to a manager in 2012 and my team finished #4, 2013 we are 72% AHEAD of our number and the #1 team in the company...all of my reps are top 10 in the company. Did I mention there are over 2500 reps in my company....

When I was promoted to a manager, I came in as a dynamite sales rep. All I did is find people like me, hired pure talent, built a team of winners. We crushed everyone and now we are on top.

But I agree with your logic, typically great reps make horrible managers because they are used to putting everything on their shoulders and winning by themselves. A great LEADER learns how to motivate individuals to replicate that same success and they must be able to delegate (which was hard for me).

 

On the flip side, BC is just like my boss. He was the number one sales rep here for a while and then became a manager a few years ago. I was the 2nd person he hired when he became a manager. Since then all he has hired is women!! (sidenote this is a good thing because women do very well in our industry- but you can only put so many of us together that click well until one comes in and screws everything up and then poo gets catty REAL fast)

 

He is very good with people I have only met 2 people ever that did not like him and asked that he not be involved in the sales process. He is also awesome at thinking on his toes so I'm usually bringing him with me to a close if I know we will get into negotiations.

 

Our team kicks ass and we are over 100% for the year (I think #2 out of all the sales teams in NC), which is great. We have a solid team right in this moment. Its just like the Panthers. Next year this time someone will have left, taken another job, etc. We will be a different team next year than we are now. Have to appreciate it now while we are in the moment.

 

We have 7 people on my team. As of now, we have 4 reps  already qualified for President's Club and 1 who is dangerously close. 

[Panthro]

my manager said this to me when i was selling copiers. we had two attractive blondes and they always had more meetings and successful cold calls he looked at me and said that if someone wanted to meet with me then they were actually interested. my closing ratio was higher and had 50% of the appts. They admittedly had issues with credibility once in the door.

[pstall]

i could sell an anchor to a drowning man and am a pro at building relationships. but i just don't like sales.