I was listening to a conversation in the bar the other night between two sales managers discussing their different opinions as to how you should best manage a direct sales team when one of them piped up quite loudly, “Man management skills are something you either have or you don't". "You can’t be taught how to manage people you’re either a good man manager or you’re not”.
I wanted to join in at this point but my wife gently reminded me that it was Friday and I had finished work for the weekend and was supposed to be relaxing with a cold beer and dedicating my time to the conversation my twin daughters were trying to have with me about what they had done in school that day!
It did start me thinking though about some of the managers I’ve worked for in the past and I have to admit that some people are just naturally born leaders
I’ll always remember a long time ago now when I was a new sales rep selling Timeshare on the cold line. I’d worked under a couple of different sales managers and seen a few changes in the management line up in a very short time and they all seemed to be the same old stereotype Timeshare Sales Managers that were around in the old days so I didn’t take a lot of notice when we were told that we had yet another new sales manager taking over on Monday and he was really going to make some changes to this sales deck.
What a surprise this one turned out to be.
He didn’t come into the meeting shouting and banging his fists on the table threatening us with the old “If you don’t get a deal today you’ll all be out of a job!” He was quite laid back, very gentle and almost human for a sales manager but still carried an air of authority about him and silently commanded respect without ever asking for it. He was one of the most motivational men I had ever met and we would almost run into the morning meetings just in case he had got there before us and we’d missed something he had to say.
Even more important was that he was very approachable and always seemed to have time to sit with you and listen to your problems and give advice on where you could be going wrong in your presentation.
It was quite a few months before I started to realise that in all the times I’d gone to him and asked advice or discussed a problem I was having, he never once gave me the answers.
He would sit and listen to my problem and then ask me what I thought my options were. Once I’d given him all the options I thought I had for solving the problems, he would then ask me what I believed would be the outcome of each option if I put them into action. Once I’d told him that he would ask me which of the outcomes I thought would best resolve my problem. He would finish by saying that as long as I know what the problem is. And I know what action would best solve the problem. I just needed to take the appropriate action to create the desired outcome and I wouldn’t have the problem any more.
No wonder he was such a relaxed manager. He taught all his staff to managed themselves and find their own solutions to their problems and so slowly there where less people going to him every day and that freed up his time up to concentrate on what his job was really about. The day to day running of what became a very successful sales operation.
"You Can’t Be Taught How To Manage People You’re Either A Good Man Manager Or You’re Not!”
About The Author Alan Roy Hocking
Alan Roy Hocking a professional sales trainer and independent marketing consultant, spent his early years in the entertainment business and developed his love of being in front of an audience and working face to face with the public from there.
It was a natural move into direct sales where he could continue to earn a living doing what he enjoyed the most. Entertaining!
After a few years spent selling various products in the U.K. He eventually moved out to Spain and started to work for what was then a relatively small marketing company, selling Timeshare.
It was in Timeshare that he really started his professional sales career and has remained in the Timeshare industry ever since.
The one thing that seemed to stick out during his early sales experience was the severe lack of proper professional initial and ongoing sales training.
New recruits would always be given the usual basic product knowledge training, but then mostly, just like he himself had been, they were let loose on the public and expected to sell!
No wonder so many potentially good sales people fail in the early stages!
Ever since then, Alan has made it his personal mission and dedicated himself to studying the psychology behind why people buy, and passing on his knowledge to anyone who chooses to make selling a long term career and really wants to learn how to sell.
His straight forward, easy to understand and down to earth style of teaching and writing is a refreshing new look at the art of closing and has earned him quite a large following of regular readers to his Sales Training Blog: “Simple Sales And Marketing Solutions”.
The constant e-mails, words of encouragement and feedback received from his original blog has eventually lead to the release of his first Sales Training E-Book, “The Five Simple But Essential Steps To Getting The Sale”
For more information on his book and other Simple Sales Training Products visit:
http://stores.lulu.com/simplesalesandmarketingsolutions
We hope you enjoy it
If there’s a particular sales skill or closing technique that you would like Alan to cover in future articles, or an objection that you are having a problem overcoming, send an e-mail to:
info@simplesalesandmarketing.com
Remember: there is no such thing as a foolish question, only a fool who doesn’t ask questions.
Warm Up Is All About Building Trust
Warm up is all about making friends with your clients.
Nobody will buy off you if they don’t like and trust you.
That means you have to spend some time getting to know your clients on a personal level and let them get to know you personally before you can get into the all important part of fact finding.
Your fact finding is the foundation on which your sale is built, but you have to earn the right to move into fact finding. That is done during the warm up period when you become your client’s new best friend.
I’m often asked “how long should the warm up period last” And the answer I give is “As long as it takes”
There is no set time for warming up a client. Each client will be different. Some will be very open and easy to talk to. This type of client can be warmed up in minutes and before you know you’re laughing and joking like you’ve known each other for years. Other clients are very reserved and take what seems forever to start to relax with you and open up. Whatever happens you should never move into fact finding until your client is ready otherwise your just wasting your time and you would have been better off staying in warm up, enjoying the coffee and not even showing them your product.
A good gauge is your clients’ body language. When you first meet you will see that your clients are normally seated stiffly with arms and legs crossed, the lady will probably have her handbag held tightly on her lap and they could be slightly turned in towards each other and away from you. These are all defensive/protective body language positions. When you start to see that the arms become unfolded, the shoulders start to drop slightly and the lady puts her handbag on the floor or on another chair. Then you know your clients are starting to relax and feel comfortable in your company.
Take control right from the beginning with alternative choice closes like: “Would you like to sit in the sun or the shade?” “Would you prefer to sit by the window or over in the corner where it’s quieter?” People feel more comfortable when they’re given a choice but not too much choice. For example, don’t ask them what they want to drink you will get all sorts of answers. Ask them if they would like a hot drink or a cold drink, “Tea or Coffee?” They will not realize that you’re controlling the answers and getting them used to making choices right from the word go. They will see it as you being very polite and well organised and that will make them feel more comfortable.
Once you have them seated and have ordered the drinks get back into relaxing your clients. People love to talk about themselves and their achievements. Remember your warm up should be 20% talking and 80% listening. Find a common interest but men don’t be tempted to talk about football and leave the wife completely out of the conversation or you will have lost the sale before you even start.
There are two types of warm up, the bus stop warm up and the pub warm up. The bus stop warm up is like two people at a bus stop who make light conversation to pass the time but don’t really get to know each other and most of the conversation goes over their heads. The pub warm up is where you start chatting to someone in a pub and before you know it you’re buying each other drinks, chatting about things you would never discuss with a stranger and arranging to meet again next week for a game of darts.
If you make all your warm up’s pub warm up’s I guarantee you will write more deals and you’ll have a lot more fun while you’re doing it!
Now go out tonight and practise just talking to people and finding out as much as you can about there hobbies, interests and favourite pastimes. Who knows, you might even make some new friends.
