7.40 am Monday morning in Perth after a super hot day yesterday.

We were in clean up mode after daughter Grace’s 21st Saturday night.

All went well. Facebook friends will see some photos there soon.

For those who’ve been waiting, the links to the Selling Coaching, Consulting and B2B BootCamp are at the bottom of this email.

But let’s get down to business.

Lessons from last week.

SEEK AND THEY WILL COME

A number of our clients are in recruiting mode at the moment, including ourselves (for Blue Rocket Franchisees but that is not the point of this piece).

Besides discovering the power of Seek.com, we are also reminding clients of make sure you don’t just recruit skills, you recruit attitude.

Ask in the headline of your ad what you are looking for.

Don’t ask for ‘Production Manager’ ask for ‘Production Manager with Winning Attitude’

Don’t ask for ‘Sales Rep’ ask for ‘Sales Rep with Superstar Attitude’

And if you’re too busy or the job is too important, get someone professional to take on the project for you.

As our recruiting friends remind us, ‘there is way more to recruiting the right person than putting an ad on Seek and doing a few interviews.’

Of course, if you’re in the Mining Industry, you don’t go past our long term star clients, Mining People International http://www.miningpeople.com.au

Lesson: Ask for the attitude you want as well as the skills and experience.. and ‘don’t try to train your way out of a bad recruiting situation.’

HOW TO LOSE GOOD PEOPLE

The reason some clients are recruiting is because some people have left.

In talking to at least some of those who have left we have only reinforced what the research shows us, the Number one reason good people leave jobs is because they do not feel appreciated or valued for the work they are doing.

Read ‘The Carrot Principle’ by Gostick and Elton if you want more info on this.

Their book is based on a 10 year study of 200,000 managers and employees.

Here is just one finding from their research:

‘according to the data, companies that effectively recognize excellence enjoy a Return on Assets more than three times higher than the returns experienced by firms that don’t.’

Lesson: Practice good recognition and reward.. Remember, reward is more than money..

Start with ‘thanks for your day..’ and ‘thanks for your ideas and input in that meeting..’

OBJECTIONS AS BUILDING BLOCKS

Listening to a great Dan Kennedy CD this week and one of his ideas reminded me of something we teach and deliberately practice with our clients.

1. Too many new (and even some of the old) reps don’t know how to handle the objections specific to your company. Take time to know what the top 5 objections are to your product, service or company, then script and practice the answers to those objections

2. Many reps run a mile rather than hear an objection.

Be willing to flush out objections in your sales presentations, then use them as building blocks to close the sale.. that is, don’t run away from, but welcome the objections..

‘let me make a list of all the reasons you can’t go ahead with this decision today…’

To paraphrase what Kennedy reminded me of , ‘even in the best of situations if you have a conversion rate of 70%, you are still going to get NO’s in 30% of cases, and in most cases it might be as high at 80% or 90% no’s, REFUSAL is not REJECTION..’

Don’t take the NO personally, its part of the game. You can learn from it to grow, but don’t let it tear you down.

Lesson: script, drill, practice and grow stronger from Objection Training.

This is especially important for new reps and members of your team.

Build up the objection handling muscle with the Objection Handling Drill.

Finally..

If you’re a coach, consultant, trainer… or you’re thinking of becoming one..

Lock in Feb 20-21 in Sydney for our 2 day

Coaching and Consulting Mastermind weekend..

Register at http://www.consultingmastermind.com/indexa.html

Or go straight to the Consulting Mastermind page http://www.consultingmastermind.com and follow the links.

FREE GIFT FOR SALES MANAGERS AND BUSINESS OWNERS

If you haven’t taken advantage of our Blue Rocket Gift please check it out..

There are free samples of brilliant interviews with business leaders, top coaches and inspiring sales legends..

Some people had trouble a couple of months ago accessing them.. so here is a reminder..

www.freegiftfrombluerocket.com

I was looking at the page yesterday and was reminded what a great package of inspiration and information is in that offer..

Clients are raving each month about what arrives in their mail and how it stimulates and coaches their sales teams for less than the cost of a cup of coffee and biscuit each week.

Give yourself a great NEW YEAR’s present..

www.freegiftfrombluerocket.com

Have a good week.

Leigh Farnell and John Blake

It’s Saturday afternoon.. The Eagles are playing the Dockers…

I haven’t tuned into the match yet as I’ve had a couple of things to do first..

My daughter is downstairs watching yet another episode of some reality show on Fox..(boy, after all those school fees what happened to reading a good book?)

Anyway, enough therapy from me..

One of the blokes at swimming training this morning said “Leigh, I haven’t heard from you on the email this week.. what’s happened?”

(So at least one person reads these..)

Anyway, John is surfing in the Mentowi’s this week while I keep the show going here in the Land of Oz..

Lessons from this week..

GIVE THE NEW GUYS THE WORDS TO SAY

With two of my clients this week, it became very clear, that if you don’t give the new recruits the actual words to say and a system to follow on a prospecting phone calls or appointments, they will make up their own.. and if they’re new, you can be 99% sure, those words and their system will be shooting them in the foot..

Give them the words you know will work… don’t leave it to chance.

Every phone call and appointment they shoot themselves in the foot with, is costing you money..

DON’T ASSUME THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING

One of my sales manager clients said this week ‘these guys are adults, we’re paying them a lot of money, I shouldn’t need to supervise them that closely..’

I said, “I agree, they are adults, and they are highly intelligent people.. but they are also new and inexperieced in this business.. they need close direction, coaching and supervision in the first 90 to 120 days before you let them loose on live prospects and clients..’

In that first 90 to 120 days you need to direct, mentor, shadow, hold by the hand and guide new recruits who have little or no experience in your business (or it will cost you money..)

If you want some ideas and help in this area give us a call or hit reply and write HELP in the subject line

IF YOU’RE NOT CLOSING, YOU’RE NOT PLAYING THE GAME

Just watching part of the movie Boiler Room on Youtube this week on closing…

It’s very instructional on the attitude, training, energy required to seriously generate business..

Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW-PHukzdgM

Intention + Energy + Script + Asking for the Business

I see so many sales professionals thinking they are doing the right thing, but are not using the above formula..

If your team need some coaching in the IESA Formula.. hit reply and write IESA in the subject line..

When you get the IESA right, you don’t need to worry about any recession..

Have a great weekend…
See you soon..
regards
Leigh