I want to talk to you today about when you’re thinking about how much effort you put into what you do, and whether or not anybody actually notices. The reason for this story is because I had an opportunity to talk with the candidate just recently and they said to me, “hey Bob, you really like what you do, I can tell you really enjoy it. And this was a very interesting time for me to learn about myself. I went through this one other time and it was so obvious that the person who was reviewing my profile with me was bored. They just mailed it in and there was nothing that I really got out of that experience.” And it made me realize that people really do see the difference. People can recognize when you’re putting forth an effort to make it special and to make it good.

There are repetitive aspects of everybody’s job. Think about the Broadway actor who is playing Hamlet and needs to read “To be or not to be” six nights a week and for two matinees. But just as every single audience is different, every single candidate is different, every single client is different and you need to look what you do in the eyes of the people that you’re delivering your work for — embrace how they will feel about it, look at how they will view it and you’ll be able to move beyond any aspect of repetitive boredom.

Really enjoy and embrace what you do. There is so much pleasure in what we get to do and how we’re able to work with people. You need to take advantage of that, just like the sign says at my pet store that we visit, Bark Less, Wag More. Thanks for your time.

We’re going to review an email that I received over the weekend. These are the kind of emails that can really make a weekend special let me tell you. I’m going to leave off the details because they’re irrelevant to the story but it reads like this:

It says, “Hi Bob. I have recently joined a company. My current employer doesn’t
know this yet, so please keep that quiet. Please find copied here with, the name of the Human Resources Manager. She is our Senior Human Resource Manager and we have discussed using your services as part of our recruitment process. I would also be interested in you conducting an analysis on the existing sales team as a way to understand more deeply the team we already have in the field.” And it’s signed by this individual who is the new Senior Vice President of Sales.

So this had great meaning to me for a lot of reasons. Obviously it’s a new prospect. It looks like the sales cycle is going to be relatively short. The SVP of Sales has worked with us. He gets it. He understands what the value is. How great is that?

What’s really interesting as a business person and as a sales person is to really
grandfather where this came from because this obviously didn’t start with this company and it didn’t even start with the company that this person worked for. It started with a company one before that. Because the individual that brought our product to the company where this person was started with us about 10 years ago and we worked with that person for a number of years with that company. He then moved over into this new organization and brought our services with him.

The writer of this email was one of the managers that when our services were initially presented, kind of rolled his eyes and said, “What do we need that for?” Well that was about five years ago. We had an opportunity to work together obviously over those years and now we’re going to continue to have an opportunity to work on that.

All of this started with a cold call. All of this started because somebody who was on my team had the guts to pick up the phone and call a senior level executive and talk to them about what we did and engaged them in conversation. So for all of you cold callers out there, banging your head against the wall wondering what they’re really worth, when you strike the gold line, you can write it for a long way. This client will be the seventh client that we will do business with over the last decade that all came from that one sales person picking up the phone to talk to one prospect.

So keep at it even though it’s hard. Even though you may get disappointed based on the percentages, remember we’re not playing baseball. Nobody cares about your batting average. All we care about are hits. Keep swinging for the fences.

I want to share some thoughts with you about a video that I saw probably two years ago when I attended a presentation that was done by a friend and client, Rob Johnson, of Sage Software. He kicked off the session by showing a video clip that’s called, “Stuck on an Escalator.” And we’re going to include the url so you can go and watch this video as well because it should haunt you the way it’s haunted me for the past couple of years.

The concept is very simple. There are two people. They are riding up an escalator in either an office building or wherever. You can’t really tell. And all of a sudden, the escalator stops. And they kind of panic. They’re standing there and they start talking
to each other. They start calling for help. Somebody does show up to theoretically fix the escalator, although that person doesn’t fix the escalator. And the people that are on the escalator stayed there. And you want to scream at them. “Just look. Just get off the escalator. It’s up to you to step up the escalator. What is your problem?”

But obviously it’s a metaphor. And the metaphor is that we get stuck on our own escalator of life where we don’t move. We get stuck with something and we don’t fix it and we don’t really understand why.

I looked at that tape and I thought about it. I said, “No. That’s not me. I would never do that.” If I had anything in life and I got stuck, I know I would just step right up and get off that escalator.

But you know what? The reason it’s haunted me is because I also know that’s not true. There are situations in all of our lives that cause us to get stuck on the escalator. And it’s our job as grown ups to figure out when we are stuck because help is not on the way. And more often than not, its tied to our behavioral style. It’s tied to doing something that is opposite from what our strengths are. And we avoid it.

Well this video helped me recognize those times in my life when I needed to kind of give myself a boot in the butt to get myself going. And I think that the video could do the same thing for you.

By the way, kudos to my friend Rob Johnson because since that time, he’s written a book about salesmanship and I’m going to give him a plug right now. It’s called “Kick your Own Ass: The Will, Skill, and Drill to Sell More than You Ever Thought Possible.” You go Rob. Watch the video. Tell me what you think.

Bob Kreisberg: For those of you that have a family cat, you’re going to understand
exactly what I’m talking about right from the get-go. But for those of you that maybe
dog people or for those of you that don’t have any animals at all, this may be a little bit
different for you, and I appreciate that.

My wife and I and children were dog people for many, many years. And we found that
having dogs was a great pleasure. They came when you call them. They sat when you
ask them to sit. And they pretty much did whatever you wanted them to do.

Then came the kittens. My daughter introduced us to kittens and we brought them in the
house. And lo and behold, the kittens ended up in the sewing room, and I remember the
first time I try to get the kittens out of the sewing room, and it was impossible. I mean
I was pulling my hair our trying to figure out how to get these kittens out of the sewing
room.

My daughter, who is a veterinary technician and a master psychologist as it comes to
animals especially cats, said to me, “Dad, what you need to figure out is what motivates
them, not what motivates you. Because if you can figure out what motivates them they
will respond to that.” And she said, “The good news is, you can find some thing they
will be motivated by. It could be a food snack. It could be an empty box. It could be a
tinkling sound. Or maybe be a moving feather. Figure it out and you’ll get the cats out
of the sewing room.” And she was right.

It was an important lesson to be learned because although with dogs, you may be able to
tell them what to do. With cats, with customers, and employees, finding out what really
motivates them and figuring out a way to bring that to them will get you far better results.

And we’re all motivated by something. It may not be a shiny light. It may not be a
tinkling sound. But it has to do with who we are and what our personality is and what
makes us tick. And just think about this. We maybe very motivated to do things that we
like but we’re even more strongly motivated to avoid things that we don’t like.

Understand the nature of the person that you’re working with so you can figure out
whether or not it is the empty box or the tinkling sound. And when you can deliver that,
then you can motivate people just the way we motivated the kittens to do what we wanted
them to do.

Thanks for your attention.

I want to tell you a little story about a meeting that I recently attended. A presenter came up to talk to the group and the first thing he said was, “I am not here to sell you anything.” I thought back to the movie, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, where the madam says to her daughter, “don’t trust anybody that ever says, trust me” and I think I have learned that same lesson whenever anybody says to me, “I am not here to sell you something.” That’s the time that you want to reach for your wallet and hold it with both of your hands , because clearly the person is there to sell you something.

It’s so interesting that people take the approach that says ” I am not here to sell you something.” Isn’t the reality that we are all here to sell everybody everything, and its so much better if you can just admit that. When I am talking to my clients about the behavioral profile and the value that we bring to the table, I am obviously trying to sell them on the value . If a candidate is talking to me about why they are a good sales person, they are trying to sell me on that. I really think that you need to be careful if you take an attitude that says I am not here to sell you something . Either its an indication that you are trying to be devious or you really don’t know why you are there.

If you are there to sell something to somebody there is nothing wrong with letting them know that you really believe in what you have got and you hope that after you have been able to talk with them that the value that you see in what you offer they are able to see as well.

Sales is an honorable profession, don’t ever forget that.

Contact us immediately to reserve your workshop date. We look forward to serving you!

In the first case, I had a client that was trying to hire a sales person for their operation in Brazil and the manager knew that he wanted a very strong, very direct, independent assertive person for the job and low and behold, he found a candidate that really fit the bill.  This person had dominance as their highest trait and everything about them in the conversation, in their resume and their results showed that they are a very strong, very assertive person. And with that we know there is good and there is bad that can come along because the nature of that person although they can be very strong, can also be a bit challenging to work with on the inside.  They perceive other people that don’t see things their way as potentially being incompetent and they have a really difficult time dealing with anything that they see as interference or micromanagement.  So, we know that going in and so the manager and I had a very good conversation about the nature of this person and the manager said to me, “You know what Bob, I’d rather worry about taking a little bit of lead out of the person’s pencil than trying to put the lead in” and I said, “You know, I understand right where you’re coming from.”

Well right after that phone call, I had another conversation with the manager that was trying to hire somebody to work for them to run a program running alliances in Europe and this person was going to need to work with country managers all over Europe working with different partners and different areas of their business and in conversation with this manager, the manager said to me, “I am looking for somebody that’s very collaborative.  I need somebody who is a consensus oriented person who knows how to get things done while not making waves” and low and behold, he found himself a great candidate for that role.  This person’s dominance was by far their lowest trait and their patience was their highest trait, but when you take low dominance matched up with high patience, you definitely have a consensus oriented collaborative oriented person.

So we had a conversation and said all of that is great, but some times the person who may need to know how to break a little glass and you’re going to need to coach them on that and the manager said, “No problem, I am great at breaking glass.  I don’t have any problem in working with somebody that I am going to need to coach them to be more assertive than is their natural style.”  So it was a great lesson.  In both cases, mangers would go in to get what they think they were looking for, but they knew going in what the nature of their candidate was and they knew exactly what they were going to need to do to make this person more effective. And isn’t that what leadership is about? Understanding the strengths of the people that we have on our team, knowing how to position them to take advantage of what they do well, but also knowing where they may have difficulties and being able to anticipate that and coach them on that, so they can work through those areas that are not as natural for them.

Thanks for your time.

So you as a manager need to understand what you need to be able to do to help the people that you have on your team utilize their own strengths. For instance some sales people have as a natural strength very strong problem solving skills. So if you have good strong problem solving skills the best bet for that person is to take advantage of that and show their buyer how they can help him solve their problems. It is a very different approach and for instance a sales person that has relationship building skills nothing wrong with being a good relationship builder but it is different than being a problem solver. If you can help your sales people that have relationship building skills focused on their strengths and problem solvers focused on their strengths then you are really making a difference as a leader within your organization, thanks for your time.