The Best Damn Sales Book Ever

16 Rock-Solid Rules for Achieving Sales Success!

Warren Greshes

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780471757283, 9780471757283
• eBook ISBN: 9781118046357
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Sales
• Index: Business

"Over the years, I have seen them all, and Warren Greshes is one of the very best. In his wonderful new book, Warren distills a lifetime of sales training into sixteen actionable tools, which, if you use them, will guarantee that you too reach your goals." -Mark Terry, President, Harman Pro Group "A great read! Warren says it all in a way that's not only easy to understand, but even easier to implement. No need to ever read another book on this subject." -John Gamauf, President Consumer Replacement Tire Sales Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC "Put this book on your must-read list if you want to learn successful strategies for taking your distribution team to the next level. Through motivation and education, Warren Greshes has captivated our very best top managers and producers. He pushes them to succeed and to keep their goals out in front of them, all the while maintaining a clear message, infused with his sense of humor. Warren has helped pave our way to success." -Bernadette Mitchell, Vice President Retirement Benefits Group, AXA Equitable "Warren is truly an expert in the field of sales! His grassroots ideas are practical, designed for immediate implementation, and are sure to lead to top-notch results. This book is a must-read for those new to sales and those veteran salespeople who want to take their skills to the next level." -Raj Madan, corporate marketing executive, financial services industry

1

Attitude and Commitment: It All Starts Here

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

—Albert Einstein

Have you ever been walking down the street when you spotted, in the distance, someone who you know is a very depressing person? What do you do? Probably cross the street or duck into the nearest store. Hey, have you ever tried this one? You see him coming so you cover your face, making believe you have to sneeze? Why do you do that? Obviously, because you don’t want to talk to that person and end up as depressed as he is.

But, on the other hand, have you ever been walking down the street when you see that very positive and optimistic person coming at you? What do you do then? (By the way, you know you’re in big trouble when that person sees you and crosses the street!) I’ll bet you make a point of stopping and talking to that person. Why? Naturally, because they make you feel good.

How do you think your clients would react if I posed the same two scenarios to them? Same way, I’ll bet! You see, nobody wants to talk to someone who makes them feel lousy, but everyone wants a shot at someone who makes them feel good.

Basic human nature: Everybody wants to associate with a winner. People want to be part of a winning situation and they run like hell from losers. Why do you think winning sports teams sell out most of their games, while losing sports teams can barely give away tickets? Let’s face it, if you called the Tampa Bay Devil Rays ticket office and said, “I’m coming to tonight’s game and I’m bringing 50 people with me. What time does it start?” their reply would be: “Whenever you get here!”

Most people won’t even admit to being part of a losing situation. Did you ever see anyone recommend a bad doctor? What could they possibly say? “Go see this guy, he’s a butcher, he’ll cut you up but good.” On the other hand, have you ever noticed that anytime someone recommends a doctor, they always say, “She’s the top person in her field”? Doesn’t anyone ever recommend the second or third guy?

As a professional speaker, I think one of the questions I get most often from business owners, executives, and managers is, “It’s so hard to find good people, especially good salespeople. What do I look for?” I always say the same thing: Hire attitude.You can teach someone everything they need to know about your company, and in a pretty short period of time, but it’s real hard to teach attitude. And let’s face it, if they’re walking in with a bad attitude before they even have the job, do you really expect it to get better once you’re paying them?

I’m not even worried about a person’s skills.You know as well as I do that a salesperson with a great attitude but limited skills will do everything in his power to acquire those skills. On the other hand, the salesperson with great skills and a lousy attitude won’t use the skills—and if you don’t use them, you lose them.

As a salesperson, your attitude and commitment are critical to your success simply because attitude and commitment are what the clients buy.When you speak to a client or prospect your attitude and commitment are what they hear, see, and feel.

Let’s face it: No one hears the words. You know as well as I do that most people don’t listen; if you have kids, you know that most people don’t listen. But people hear your attitude, they feel your commitment, and that’s what they’re going to buy. Anyone can close a sale, but not everyone can sell attitude and commitment. Only the most successful salespeople can do that.

In my travels, I have met many people who have achieved far more success than was ever expected of them, simply because of their positive attitude and unwavering commitment to do whatever it took to be successful.

Wayne Thorpe’s father abandoned his family when Wayne was very young. When he was 13 his mother became quite ill, and he and his three brothers practically raised themselves. Wayne graduated high school an unfocused young man. He started his career cleaning out animal cages for a drug company. But because of his positive attitude, an executive with the company took a liking to him, convinced him he had the ability to do more with his life, and encouraged him to go to college.

Once he saw he was capable of doing more with his life, the confidence he gained fed his burning commitment to succeed. Combining that with his always positive attitude, Wayne Thorpe branched out on his own 15 years ago and now owns and operates a car and limousine service, an auto detailing company, a carpet cleaning company, and a commercial cleaning company. He is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the city of Durham, North Carolina, and a leader in the minority business community.

His positive attitude has permeated his entire organization and is the number one reason Thorpe’s Inc. is so successful. I know this because since 1997 I’ve been a customer, and in all that time I have never used any other car service to get me to and from the airport. In the last eight years, I have done almost $50,000 worth of business with Thorpe’s Inc. just on car trips to and from the airport, and it’s all for one reason: the attitude that starts with Wayne Thorpe and permeates his entire organization. And for me it all started with one phone call.

When my wife Linda and I were considering moving from New York City to Chapel Hill, we made numerous trips to research the Chapel Hill area. We checked out everything—schools, neighborhoods, shopping, traffic, cultural activities, airport, and for me, the quality of ground transportation to and from the airport.

One morning, during one of our many research trips, I opened up the local Yellow Pages and found four different car services. I called each one and told them that I would be moving to the area, I was looking for a reliable car service that could get me to and from the airport in Chapel Hill, and I would like to ask them a few questions.

Three of the four acted as if I had the plague and they were afraid they could catch it right through the phone line. Once they knew I wasn’t going to spend any money right then and there, they tried to hustle me off the phone as quickly as possible. It was like talking to a New York doctor. (If you’ve never spoken to a New York doctor, imagine you’re speaking to someone who’s walking backwards away from you as they’re talking to you.)

The fourth company—Thorpe’s, of course—spent so much time answering my questions and being helpful, I couldn’t wait to get them off the phone.

The decision was easy—three lousy attitudes, one great one. Eight years and $50,000 worth of business later, I often wonder: If, when I called those other three car services, I had said, “I will be relocating to Chapel Hill, and I’m looking for a reliable car service to take me to and from the airport. I expect to spend approximately $50,000 on this over the next eight years,” do you think they would have taken the time to answer my questions?

If every salesperson treated every inquiry as if it were a potential $50,000 client, I’ll bet they’d land a lot more $50,000 clients.

 

My sister-in-law, Brenda Romano, never graduated from college, for one good reason: She never went. After graduating high school, she went to secretarial school. When I first met her, in 1980, she was a secretary at Wrangler Jeans. More than anything she loved music, especially rock music. She loved going to concerts and wanted desperately to get a job in the record business—not an easy thing to do.

Through hard work and hustle, she landed a job as a secretary at RCA records. I would say she worked like a dog, but she would have had to slack off to do that. She always did way more than she was supposed to do. She never let her job description define her. She stayed late, worked till all hours covering shows performed by RCA’s artists, and handled any impossible task with a “No problem” attitude.

Finally she was moved up to the promotion staff and was told that in order to be a promotion person she would have to move to Florida. She did. She did a great job in Florida and was just settling in when she was asked to take over the job in San Francisco, and had to move immediately. From San Francisco to Chicago, from Chicago to New York, from New York to Los Angeles, every time with a “No problem” attitude and everywhere doing a great job by doing more than she was supposed to do.

After moving around to a few different recording labels (always with a better position), she is now president of one of the hottest labels in the industry, Interscope Records, where she is one of the highest ranking women in the entire recording industry. By the way, most of the people who report to her are college graduates.

THE FIRST ROCK-SOLID RULE FOR ACHIEVING SALES SUCCESS

Because of their great attitudes, successful salespeople always do more than they’re supposed to do.

Let me stop here for a quick rant regarding rock-solid rule number one.

I’m not a big lover of public schools. I honestly believe most of them are just jobs programs for the marginally employable. One of the many useless lessons kids learn in school is, if you do what you are supposed to do and do that all the time, you’ll receive an A or a B. However, in the real world, and especially in the world of sales, doing only what you’re supposed to do will get you a C, a nice average grade.

But we’re not talking about average here; we’re talking about what it takes to be successful. People who work in public schools are government employees. To most government employees, “doing what you’re supposed to do” is all that needs to be done. Why do more when you get an annual raise just for hanging around? In sales, if all you do is hang around, you’re soon gone.

I received an e-mail not too long ago from one of my radio show listeners that was one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of someone who succeeded because they were willing to go the extra mile and do more than they were supposed to do. The e-mail came from Deborah Lee, who is a branch manager for a supermarket bank in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. She wrote:

[While I was] working as a new branch manager for a supermarket bank, a customer came in and after completing his transactions asked if he could borrow a Blue Book for autos. I said,“Sure no problem, If you can please return it on Monday.” Well he did, and it was a test. He was out shopping for a new bank to transfer his company’s accounts to, and I was the only person that day to give him the time of day, and not question his request.

In case you were wondering, as I was, yes, Deborah landed the account. She didn’t do one bit of selling, didn’t take even a second to make a presentation. All she did was sell attitude—the attitude that not every customer request is an attempt to put something over on you; the attitude that doing something nice for a customer without any promise of future business does not make you a sap.

The best thing is, Deborah did more than she was supposed to do without really doing anything extraordinary. All Deborah did was grant the customer’s request to borrow the Blue Book. Not exactly what I would call going above and beyond the call of duty, but compared to all her competition, she was a regular Mother Teresa.

Do you see how easy it is to beat the competition? In Deborah’s case it was loaning out a book with no questions asked. In the case of Thorpe’s Inc. it was the willingness to politely answer a few questions from a potential client. Most salespeople (and most people, for that matter) are so mediocre at what they do that most times, going the extra mile only requires you to go a few extra yards.

In future chapters you’ll find that beating the competition is so easy that most times it’s just a matter of showing up.

2

Successful Salespeople See Themselves Successful

Nimble thought can jump both sea and land.

—William Shakespeare

Starting in this chapter, the question I am attempting to answer for you is this: Where do this kind of attitude and commitment come from and what can we do to develop them in our lives and careers? Because, as you’ll find as you read on, attitude and commitment are not something we’re born with. They must be developed through setting goals, planning, and creating a sense of focus, purpose, and direction for your life and career.You are not born with a burning desire to be the best. There has to be a reason, something you are committed to, and only you can decide what that is.

This chapter also begins my five-step goal-setting and planning process that will help you create your own written five-year plan for your life, career, and business. This plan will give you the sense of purpose, focus, and direction you need to be able to motivate yourself on a consistent basis.

The first step of the goal setting and planning process is to “see it.”

THE SECOND ROCK-SOLID RULE FOR ACHIEVING SALES SUCCESS

Successful salespeople see themselves successful. They create visions.

First and foremost, successful salespeople create visions for themselves. They create visions for their lives and careers. And because they’re able to create visions for themselves they’re also able to create and communicate visions to their clients and prospects. But really, isn’t that your job? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to be doing? Are you just there to get in the door, sell whatever the heck you can, and get out? Or are you there as a resource for that client, someone who will help them create a vision for their company and sell them solutions to their needs?

However, if you cannot even create a vision for yourself, how can you possibly expect to create a vision for someone else? Only if you can see yourself successful can you be successful. If in your mind you can envision yourself doing something, then you can do it. But if you can’t even see yourself doing it in your mind, how can you ever expect to do it in real life?

Have you ever said to yourself, or heard someone else say, “I can’t imagine doing that in my wildest dreams”? Well, if you can’t do it in your wildest dreams, what makes you think you can do it in real life? Let’s face it, it’s a lot easier to do this stuff in our dreams.

So see it; see yourself successful; visualize it. What you’re trying to do is create a picture in your mind of what you want your success to be.

Now I want you to think of a certain salesperson you probably know. In fact, I’m sure everyone knows someone like this.You’ve either worked with this person or had someone like this working for you. That salesperson is “the excuse maker.”

You know the one I’m talking about—the person who always tells us how much business they could have done, but.... They have no luck; they never catch a break. Everyone else is getting the good leads and they’re always stuck with the ones that can’t pass the credit check. And you know why? “My manager hates me! Everyone here hates me! They’re all plotting against me!”

For now, just for the sake of argument, let’s say all the excuse makers are right. Even though we know they’re wrong, let’s say they’re right—they have no luck, everyone hates them, and we’re all plotting against them. I still have one question for all the excuse makers: How come you still could not eve...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 - Attitude and Commitment: It All Starts Here
• Chapter 2 - Successful Salespeople See Themselves Successful
• Chapter 3 - Setting Goals: Why You Need Them and Why You Need to Write Them Down
• Chapter 4 - Successful Salespeople Are in Control
• Chapter 5 - The Three Components of an Effective Written Goal
• Chapter 6 - The Action Plan: Why You Need One
• Chapter 7 - The Three Components of an Effective Written Plan
• Chapter 8 - Acting on Your Plan:You Have Twenty-Four Hours to Act on a Good Idea
• Chapter 9 - Persistence: People Don’t Fail, They Just Stop Trying
• Chapter 10 - Your First and Most Important Sale Is at Home
• Chapter 11 - Successful Salespeople Sell More than Just the Product or Service
• Chapter 12 - Successful Salespeople Create and Deliver Value and Don’t Sell Price
• Chapter 13 - Successful Salespeople Know What Clients Buy and Why
• Chapter 14 - Successful Salespeople Are Experts, Advisers, and Resources
• Chapter 15 - Successful Salespeople Love What They Do
• Index