Visit the Sage

Mom's Kitchen

I can still see the orange rays streaming through the picture window that morning. I was 12. It was the summer between sixth and seventh grade, and Dad and I were in the finishing stages of a total rehab of our house. It was around 5 a.m., and he and I were sitting alone at the kitchen table surveying our handiwork with pride and anticipation.

Mom's kitchen was old-school. Room as big as a small house. Kitchen cabinets and appliances lining three walls. Doors leading to every other area of our home. Solid-oak table -- strategically centered, of course -- capable of seating 16 for a fine Thanksgiving meal, or standing 25 for arts and crafts.

This room was the epicenter of family life at the Wagner's, so it was perfectly natural that Mom was beyond anxious for us to finish her kitchen -- she had been cooking out back on a camping stove (not to mention using a sheet of plywood set on construction horses as a dinner table) for more than a week.

About 9 o'clock the night before, we had finished painting the kitchen walls, and the family was winding down for the night. That's when Dad pulled me aside and whispered, "If we bust our butts all night, we can finish this and surprise Mom in the morning."

"Finish it in one night?" I thought. "You must be kidding."

We still had to install the electrical outlets and plates, lay the tile floor, set the kitchen cabinets and appliances, cut and install the baseboard, and, most importantly, set up Mom's table and chairs.

And we had to do all that without waking up Mom.

I truly figured there was no way we could do it, but at the same time, I was really excited about the reaction we'd get from her if we pulled it off.

So as soon as she hit the sack and Dad made his excuses for staying up "another hour or so," we tackled that kitchen like madmen on a crusade.

20 electrical outlets installed with plates ... Done!

352 square feet of tile laid ... Done!

Dozens of kitchen cabinets leveled and secured, countertops installed and jointed, plumbing hooked up and tested, cabinet knobs screwed in ... Done!

55 feet of baseboard measured, cut, stained and installed ... Done!

Stove and fridge installed and leveled ... Done!

And finally, Mom's kitchen table and chairs lovingly arranged ... Done!

Feeling that cocky pride that comes only after an impossible job is done, and done well, we were darn sure not going to miss the look in Mom's eyes as she walked into her new kitchen that morning. So I popped Dad another Falstaff (taking my "I popped it, I'm starting it" sip off the top, of course), and we sat down to wait.

After sitting silently for a while as we surveyed our work and patted ourselves on the back, Dad calmly but deliberately took a swig of beer, leaned toward me slightly, gave me one of his "I'm serious now, so listen up" looks, and said:

"When people sit back and gaze at what they've built, they aren't smiling because what they've built is beautiful. They're smiling because they're remembering every measurement, every cut, every grand idea and every stupid mistake that went into taking raw material and turning it into something wonderful.

"They're smiling because they're looking at what love can create.

"Mom is going to love her kitchen, because we loved building it."

Since that summer morning, I've built six companies. And while every one of those companies has achieved success, the times I remember and cherish most are times like being $250,000 in debt with no receivables, no clients, no money to pay bills six months old, phones about to be turned off, and attorneys and collection agencies threatening to take my home.

The things I remember and cherish most happened during the building, not when I finished what I had started.

What is your task today? To overcome insurmountable debt? To make 100 phone calls? To close a deal? To wow an audience?

Tackle that task with the love of a child trying to put a smile on his mother's face, and you'll not only greatly increase your chances of success, you'll be guaranteed to have something on which you can look back and smile.

--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Five Things

Every month or two, as part of my marketing/relationship-building efforts, I host what I call a "Connection Dinner." Simply put, I invite three or four businesspeople I believe should know one another to meet over some great food and drinks, and I facilitate a discussion about their respective businesses, roles, likes, dislikes, goals and obstacles.

While the point of the dinner is for me to help my guests get to know each other and figure out ways they might help one another, I always find that I learn something unforeseen yet incredibly valuable during the process.

During a Connection Dinner last month, I found my nugget of inspiration in the form of a simple marketing tip provided by Timothy McFadden. Tim is an incredibly accomplished attorney at Armstrong Teasdale, one of the biggest and best law firms in St. Louis.

Tim has 30 or so years of experience, is an equity partner in the firm, leads the small-business group and is in charge of the firm's marketing efforts.

In other words, the guy is a smart and accomplished attorney and business leader, and knows how to develop a practice area.

During our conversation that evening, I was asking Tim a series of questions related to selling legal services and motivating associates to do the same, and was enthralled with his insights into making a large law firm successful.

But the nugget of wisdom that stuck with me most came when I asked him, "Bottom-line it for me, Tim. What should an associate do to become a sales rainmaker?"

Tim's immediate response to our little group was, "Five things."

Then we waited ...

And we waited ...

Almost dipping our ties into our desserts, we all leaned forward as we waited a bit more ...

Then when I finally realized Tim was actually done answering the question, I asked, "What five things?"

"Any five things," he replied. "Every week without fail I schedule five things that are related to marketing or building relationships, such as dinner tonight with you guys. I never know what the five things will be, but I always make sure that every week I do five things."

I am convinced that one of the most important traits a salesperson can have is initiative, because it's initiative that turns dreams into reality. Tim's explanation of his "Five Things" marketing plan is the simplest, most precise and usable example of initiative applied that I've ever heard. (And I teach this stuff for a living.)

What five things are you doing next week?

--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Book Review: SPIN Selling

Spin Selling, by Neil Rackham -- review by Gill E. Wagner

Prologue

I first heard of SPIN Selling in the early '90s, but the name alone placed it in my mental category of manipulative selling, so I never read the book. After all, "spin" is a well-known marketing tactic centering on avoiding the truth when it hurts your case, so I figured SPIN Selling must be the epitome of that approach.

Then early in 2004, while researching the competition for my first book, I found that SPIN Selling was in the Amazon.com top-25 sales books list. So I decided it was high time I have a look.

Following are my thoughts on the book -- I hope they help you decide whether it's worth buying and reading.

Enjoy,

Gill

Philosophy

I absolutely love books based on research, and besides the catchy name, that is the single biggest selling point for SPIN Selling. Rackham is a researcher by profession, and he wrote the book after conducting an extensive research effort and then testing his theories as best he could.

The primary conclusions of Rackham's research are that people behave differently when making major purchases than they do when making minor purchases, so salespeople should adapt their approaches to this fact. He concludes that the best salespeople interview prospects carefully, and that, to sell high-ticket items, you must get the prospect to discuss both the pain associated with the problem at hand and the positive results of fixing that problem.

While his conclusions aren't anything new (after all, he learned all of it by watching individual salespeople do their thing), Rackham's logical approach to proving his theories should help sales managers convince salespeople to stop talking and start asking questions -- eliminating a fundamental mistake made by most salespeople.

Opinion: Anyone who is struggling with the sales appointment will find value in this book. However, if you're looking for more than proof of what should occur, this book is probably not for you, because easily 85 percent of the content is devoted to proving the point, rather than to helping a salesperson learn how to fix the problem. In other words, Rackham stays true to his values by describing the situation, identifying the problem, demonstrating the implication and putting value to the payoff, but then falls short of actually providing the value he says is needed to keep customers happy. If you read SPIN Selling, you will definitely learn what's broken and should be fixed, but you will be left mostly to your own devices on how to fix it.

"Duh" Moment

In my review of David Sandler's book You Can't Teach A Kid To Ride A Bike At A Seminar, I tried to humorously point out that his story of the Sandler submarine (the visual foundation of his system) conjured an image of a sinking sub -- not exactly the image I want of my sales efforts.

Similarly, I simply can't resist taking the spin out of the title SPIN Selling, by mentioning the "duh" moment I had when I realized how far Rackham had to stretch to create the SPIN acronym:

• S -- Situation (ask questions until the prospect provides a simple, general description of the status quo)
• P -- Problem (ask questions with the specific intent of guiding the prospect to the conclusion that he has the problem your products or services provide)
• I -- Implication (ask questions until the prospect clearly and accurately describes the pain associated with the problems he now agrees he has)
• N -- Need-Payoff (ask questions until the prospect has clearly and accurately described the result of solving the problem and determined the associated return on investment)

Is it just me, or is "need-payoff" rather forced? Throughout the book, Rackham mentions the importance of determining the prospect's "need-payoff," but all his examples describe payoff alone.

The fact is, in the world of sales need is much more accurately associated with problem than payoff. But then again, I doubt SNIP Selling or SPIP Selling would have done remotely as well as SPIN Selling, so while I'll chuckle at the failure of creativity, I'll applaud Rackham for his marketing savvy.

After all, it seems to have worked!

Process

Anyone reading this book can expect to be walked through the following basic process:

1. You'll be told repeatedly about the value of objective research in determining the truth about what works and what doesn't.
2. You'll learn through research-based evidence that the very best salespeople spend most of their time asking questions, and the very worst salespeople spend most of their time describing their products and services.
3. You'll learn that, when selling low-ticket items, being an obnoxious jerk can actually help. (Note: While Rackham makes this point several times throughout the book, he really never offers objective proof for this conclusion -- citing only his own experience as a buyer to justify the point. In other words, he never discussed any testing of alternative approaches for those selling low-ticket items.)
4. You'll learn that, while you should ask about the prospect's general situation, such as how long he has been in business, the majority of your time should be spent asking questions about the problem, the pain it causes and the payoff of fixing it.
5. You'll learn that traditional objection-handling and closing skills are more harmful than helpful when selling.
6. In Chapter 8, "Turning Theory Into Practice," you'll learn the second-most valuable piece of information in this book -- a step-by-step approach to applying new concepts over time, so you can actually put into practice anything new you learn.
7. And finally, in Appendix A, "Evaluating The SPIN Model," you'll learn the most valuable lesson SPIN Selling has to offer -- ways to objectively measure whether sales training actually increases sales.

Manipulation Factor

Overall, Rackham's advice is to be straight and honest with prospects. That being said, I do have one major complaint.

In the example conversations Rackham uses throughout the book, he describes how to ask leading questions of the prospect -- questions designed to get the prospect to focus on only the problems you solve, regardless of whether they're truly important to him or her. Rackham even tells you to prepare those leading questions in advance, then uses them in "successful" examples.

At one point Rackham uses an example whereby a prospect clearly says why he needs copiers that can copy double-sided, and tells you, he salesperson, that, if your copier doesn't have that feature, you should avoid discussing double-sided copying at all -- effectively steering the prospect to other problems you can solve.

While this manipulative approach might help you close this sale, it completely violates the concepts of Honest Selling, whereby your mission is to build solid, long-term relationships by always helping the prospect make the best choice possible -- even when that choice is not your products or services.

Opinion: This "close today" approach completely ignores the fact that customers who are talked into buying less-than-the-best solutions rarely come back, rarely provide referrals, rarely write testimonials and rarely act as references. The opportunities you gain by always doing what's best for each prospect outweigh the value of today's sale 10 to 1. So, even if you read the book and adopt the SPIN Selling concepts, do not forget that it's the customer's true needs that come first.

Opinion: On a side note, I found the testimonials on the back cover to be very suspect. They may be totally legit, but not one of them is accompanied by the name of the person who supposedly spoke or wrote the comment.

Recommendation

What you will not get from SPIN Selling is a real approach to getting all the information you need to close deals. There is nothing about how to find and get conversations with the true decision-makers, nothing about handling deal-breakers or getting solid commitments, nothing related to organizing your sales appointments so you don't miss key points, nothing about determining budget or buying processes, and nothing whatsoever about marketing or prospecting.

If you're really struggling with the appointment hour, then the book is worth reading. Or, if you're already interviewing prospects correctly, consider buying the book and skipping straight to Chapter 8 and Appendix A -- those two chapters alone will give you ideas you can use in dozens of ways throughout your career. (I've already changed one of my approaches to sales training based on the concepts in Chapter 8. And I have a new idea for a service I can provide based on the ideas I got from Appendix A.)

Honestly, the book isn't bad. But I truly don't know what all the fuss is about. (And if the fuss is really all about the name, which I believe it is, that's a sad commentary on the gullibility quotient of the world's sales force.)

And finally, I must admit that, after reading the book, I was left with the feeling that Rackham's training might be worthwhile. After all, if his measurement examples in Appendix A are indeed accurate, his training must be accomplishing something.

--
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Consistency

Every Monday morning for the past 15 years, I've introduced two people who need something to two people who can provide it.

It takes me about five minutes each week.

In return, I've received untold introductions and produced tons of business. And I've had more than enough volunteers every time I ever asked for a small favor, like filling out a survey or introducing me to someone I could interview for an article or book.

That's more than 3,000 people helped and untold benefits received, because 15 years ago, I added a five-minute task to my weekly calendar.

What's my point?

For long-term success, do small things consistently over time, instead of huge things occasionally.

What small thing will you start doing this week to ensure long-term success?