To Sell Like Cole, or to Sell Like a Business Owner | Business Sales Techniques

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Doug Christy

How about a show of hands?  How many of you have an advance degree in sales?  Bachelors?  Associate?  High School training?  How about training from your dad to make the below You Tube video?  Watch the cute kid (Cole) get a $20 bill from his prospect (Dad).

Pretty cute, wasn’t it?  Dad taught (and if you watch the end of the video you see dad and relatives coaching) Cole what we would call “traditional sales techniques” to get in the door, stay in the door, handle objections, refuse to leave or chase forever to “hopefully” come away with a twenty dollar bill.  The one major liberty taken with this video was that traditional sales techniques such as Cole’s usually end up in a prolonged, exhausting “chase” with quick closes the exception rather than the norm.  Sound familiar?  It doesn’t have too.

At Pro/Vision Coaching, we coach the business owner.  The overwhelming majority have little or no sales training or experience.  Instead, they are experts (technicians/professionals) at what they do.  Their belief is if they do it well, word of mouth raving fans will be enough to sustain them.  Word of mouth raving fans may work for a while – just better keep performing at excellent standards to keep them referring.  And better not have an economic downturn, or better not lose a key employee, or…………you get the picture.

How about a simpler solution that could help take your business to the next level?  Don’t want the next level, then how about getting a bit more time off for you/your family?  The equation is simple:  closing more prospects results in increased raving fans = business growth = you fill in the blank as to what it means to you personally.  The solution is this: stop trying to sell like Cole.  You likely aren’t that cute and all your prospects won’t be family.

Sales is an important part of one of the dozen or so processes we take our clients through.  We have special certification and licensing in a best practice sales and prospecting system called Client Builder.  It was developed by Larry Lewis taking the past several decades of best practice sales systems, coupling it with human behavior psychology, resulting in a system that is more like a conversation than a sales call.  I call it the “anti-sales system”.  Our business owners embrace it.  They don’t have to feel the need to use Cole’s techniques when they get in front of a prospect.

It has yielded incredible results with our clients and helps rid the stigma of the “traditional sales guy” and replaces it with a professional conversation centered on either we have a fit, or we don’t.  To learn more, visit the rest of our website or contact us on our webform to learn more about upcoming workshops or coaching services that can help you be less like Cole.

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Is Greed Good? | A Look at Business Vision and Profit

Posted on November 23, 2011 by PhilStalnaker

As our friend Gordon Gekko once pointed out, “Greed is good.” It is the oil that keeps the economic machine running, the grease that lubricates our free market, and the sludge that is produced from our toxic waste sites. I contend to you, how good is greed?

Our free market economic system relies on one very simple premise: supply vs. demand. Without demand, there would be no reason for supply. Without supply, demand would rise so high that even reasonable adults would transform into raving lunatics running on pure bloodlust for the next Tickle-Me-Elmo. Welcome to the holidays.

“After Target decreed that Black Friday would start at midnight Thanksgiving night and that employees must report to work at 11 p.m., an Omaha worker, Anthony Hardwick, posted a petition at Change.org asking the company to move the official start of Christmas shopping back to 5 a.m. Friday. Response from workers and others has been stellar: 192,000 signatures by Monday.” CNN.com

Each year we have watched these stores open earlier and earlier, tempting shoppers with great deals at horrible hours. It’s simple (and good business): this time of year there is an inherent rise in demand for the holidays. Because of that rise in demand, supply becomes in danger. Small stores cannot keep supply on the shelves and the wholesale market caters to those who can continue to keep demand on the rise. Big-box stores such as Target and Walmart have the infrastructure to handle holiday demand, keeping a relatively decent supply of products on their shelves for the shoppers. Obviously they want to sell more than other stores, so they compete with each other; if Target opens at 4am, Best Buy will open at 3.

The people that stand to be hurt are the employees, all of whom have significant gripes against their big-box employer (see americanrightsatwork.org to see examples of offenses). Not only do people have to be there during open hours, but stocking, delivery, preparation and clean-up work are needed also. Can you imagine shopping in a Target ravished by holiday shoppers with no clean-up? Not fun. Truth be told, though, in this instance, the stores are only responding to the public. If no one shows up to go shopping at 2am, do you think Target would remain open at that hour? No.

Thus, the question remains. Who is to blame? Is it the big-box stores? Is it ourselves? Is it a flawed economic system? Is it Cap’n Crunch’s? Gordon Gekko was right. Greed IS good – at least to a point. Greed is the emotion that pushes us to be the best doctors, inventors, teachers, producers, etc… in a free market economy. This is based on the simple principle of competition. I want a better life and to reach it must do better than others. Good business coaching focuses on this – VISION. This can be a good thing, because in order to reach that, we need the help and cooperation of other people. Thus, the “if you profit, then I can profit” ideal was born. As communal greed grows, life grows. It builds cities, national parks and green energy.

This philosophy fails when restraint dies, giving us no control over our material desires. Greed without restraint pushes us to dangerous ends that destroy others and search for our good at the cost of others as opposed to the good of all. It is this mentality that leads to corruption and is the cause of many of the symptoms our economy currently faces. When we look to help ourselves with the point of doing it at someone else’s expense, we cross the line. That greed does not rebuild our economy.

Maybe the best lesson this holiday season is a classic proverb that can help us look at things from a different approach. “It is better to give than to receive.” If we all give, then we all will receive; if you profit, then I can profit. After all, I would want my children to receive the best education possible so they have the opportunity to reach their potential. If I keep cutting the wages of our teachers, then I am not promoting good greed that grows a community (and my children’s future), I am just being selfish.

Selfishness is not vision. Vision for a better life for yourself and others is a great thing and the ultimate description of profit.

Captain Crunch

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Philip Stalnaker Interviewed about Marketing on Chat With Women Network

Posted on October 13, 2011 by PhilStalnaker

In case you were not able to listen to the radio show live, it is available online at the following link:

http://www.chatwithwomen.com/media.php?do=details&mid=364

Thanks again to Jen Westby and Julie Wells for having me on the show – I hope that I was able to provide some insight and support to all the listeners out there!

Tha Motivational Happy Hour can be found online on Facebook!

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Pro/Vision Coaching Seattle Office Reaches Profitability Ahead of Schedule

Posted on October 11, 2011 by PhilStalnaker

Pro/Vision Coaching, Inc. is proud to announce that the expansion efforts into the Seattle Metropolitan area have been a huge success and the company has reached profitability, thus successfully completing the expansion portion of their Seattle growth plan a whole quarter ahead of schedule.

Despite the current economic troubles of the nation, Pro/Vision was able to start from scratch and get their expansion office to a sustainable, profitable office a whole three months ahead of their plan. “Our goal was to reach profitability by the end of 2011,” stated owner Doug Christy. “The fact that we reached it a quarter ahead of time shows that the Seattle market is ready for our services and that we are providing a solution that works.”

The success has been in part due to the launch of the Pro/Vision Academy, a series of groups, workshops, and courses that expanded the company’s reach from solely business owners to include business professionals as well. “We knew that we had to reach people where they are,” commented VP of Business Development Philip Stalnaker, “And when we saw an opportunity to change our price points and allow for both easier entrance into our firm and higher profit margins, we simply saw a win-win for everyone.”

Now that the Seattle Metro office is fully profitable, Pro/Vision Coaching is able to increase the value of their already high-level customer service and provide greater insight to their clients, part of which is shown by how quickly they were able to reach their goals. For additional information about Pro/Vision Coaching or to inquire about their full list of services, call 425-516-7478 (Seattle Metro) or 402-301-6987 (Omaha Metro).

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The Death of Customer Service

Posted on September 20, 2011 by PhilStalnaker

It had been a long day at the office. All day long, day after day, it was always the same routine; and it was starting to get harder to pick himself back up again. There was no real reason why it broke – sometimes that’s what things do; they break. Tom was just reaching a crisis point. The competition for his job was becoming a bear to deal with, and neither his age nor experience was counting as much as they used to. When his mp3 player busted, for Tom, that was the last straw.

Granted, Tom had only purchased the mp3 player a week ago, and there was no reason for the player to die; it just did. Relying on the success of his storied career, he planned to walk right back into the store and have this problem fixed. Unfortunately, that was not in the cards. At least he wasn’t alone.

Tom’s friends joined him at the mall, though I’m sure it was mainly because he promised to take them out to dinner afterwards. The fun did not last long, though, because as soon as they entered the store, they had to deal with Ray. Ray was the customer service manager at the technology store. His job was to make sure that every customer got served, but he also had to ensure no easy points got scored against the company. In other words, Ray—definitely no saint—had no intention of allowing a return.

“I’m sorry, Tom. Before I can let you return this, I need to ask you a few questions. Has your mp3 player been roughed up in any way? Have you ever dropped it in water? You do know that automatically voids the warranty. If we find in any way that you caused the breakage of this machine, you’ll have more luck making money off the old 49′er gold rush than you will getting a replacement device.”

His buddies did the best they could to protect him from the coming onslaught, but Tom scrambled out of their way and into danger head-on. Ray’s complete blockage of an innocent return was inexcusable. There was no reason for Ray to be colder than steel; it was as if he were trying to pack on the punishment for no reason. After forty-five minutes of convincing, Ray finally relented and gave up the discount; mainly because he finally succumbed to the pressure being laid on him by Tom’s buddies. Being gang-tackled by a bunch of large guys isn’t fun for anyone, especially Ray.

In the end, Tom won the day and returned his mp3 player. I would say he is enjoying his new iPod, but I’m not allowed to use real product names. There is a lesson to be learned in all of this (by the way, if you haven’t picked up on all the football references by now, there are multiple lessons to learn), and that lesson is the value of customer service. When did it become okay to lie to a customer while signing up for satellite television? Or to jet off after a contract signing before anyone could ask questions? It certainly seems as though the big companies today truly do not care about your business. It may only be $39.95 this month they receive, but the lifetime value of that $39.95 per month client can be in the hundreds of thousands after a few years if nurtured properly (by way of longer-term contract, referrals, etc…).

The problem is that nobody cares anymore. What reason did Ray have to actually care about Tom’s problem? What motivation do the “Ray’s” in the world have for actually caring for the client experience? Are they receiving extra rewards for their level of “niceness”? Are they being compensated off the long-term value of the clients with whom they work? No. This is why customer service is dead. It wasn’t eaten by a lion.

If a customer service employee comes to work after having a bad start to their day, there is nothing to keep them from passing that on to other people; no motivation to listen to another complaining customer, or to take seriously an issue that they’ve heard about by thirty other people in the last hour. That is, unless the owner of that business cares – and cares enough to ensure that no bad days are allowed in the office – at least by way of ensuring that each employee is directly rewarded for their client care record. Maybe then customer service can be revived. Though I’m not holding my breath, miracles do happen. A few weeks ago a cowboy named Roger fulfilled every American male’s dream by making one simple decision.

Buccaneer.

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Gotta Love the Quick Fix | Business Problems and Easy Solutions

Posted on September 9, 2011 by PhilStalnaker

I vaguely remember an old movie starring Michael J. Fox and James Woods entitled “The Hard Way”. I couldn’t tell you what it was about or even why I saw it, other than I assume it has something to do with doing something in a more difficult fashion. I certainly prefer doing things the easy way, and that is one of the main reasons why I love duct tape.

“Iowa Chrome”, as many call it is a tape that can hold virtually anything together. Originally designed for duct work, its main purpose was to hold the metal ducts together against heat and sometimes even water. For a roll of tape, that’s pretty impressive! The mid-nineties witnessed the rise of duct tape pop-culture, a fashion statement that included designer duct tape suits. I once made a wallet out of the beloved material, though I regrettably never used it. It is just so simple – one roll of tape that can fix basically anything – who wouldn’t want to use it for everything?

Most people did. It became such a popular household tool, that sales have consistently risen over the years, and, according to a recent article about a spike in sales due to Hurricane Irene, proves that Americans will pretty much use duct tape for anything. Why?

According to Florence and the Machine, duct tape is simply the quick and easy solution to life’s problems, and causes situations when not readily available. “I got in a lot of trouble from my stepfather for using his duct tape, to tape up my school skirt. So the inside of my skirt was done up with electrical tape. I always find in daily life, it’s like, don’t you kind of make your own uniforms in a sense. It’s really weird.” Duct tape is simply the quick and easy solution to your fix-it needs. This is why Iowans use it so much.

What does this tell us about life? It tells us that we are all about finding the quick and easy fix to our problems. It’s been often said that necessity is the mother of invention and, since the industrial revolution, America has prided itself on its ability to figure out faster, easier solutions to problems. While Eli Whitney was brilliant in figuring out ways to make plantation life easier, the impacting result today is unquenchable desire for the next get rich quick scheme.

Hard work is considered a bad word in many parts of our culture. Even during the recession struggles of the past few years, I personally have witnessed multiple people choose laziness. This shows itself in the business world as well. While I am in no way saying that multi-level marketing is, in and of itself, a scam, it is often marketed as an easy way to get rich quick. “Discover the Hefty New Online Revenue Source To Get Rich And Generate At Least $31,650 Every Month On Complete Autopilot! Now You Can Learn The Step-By-Step Methods This 21-Year Old College Dropout Used To Make Money Fast And Generate His First $1,000,000! The Secret Is Now Revealed To Public” (http://21butrich.com/ – please do not visit this site, used only for “journalistic integrity”).

The truth is getting rich quick doesn’t work. “In an October 15, 2010 [USA Today] article, it was stated that documents of a MLM called Fortune reveal that 30 percent of its representatives make no money and that 54 percent of the remaining 70 percent only make $93 a month”.

Success and financial independence can certainly be earned, but it takes time and hard work. Whether or not you have decided to go the multi-level marketing route, it still takes work – lots of it. There are plenty of people out there helping others reach their vision, business coaches (Yay for shameless plugs!) being a good place to start. However, regardless of how many people you have helping you, there is no way to avoid hard work. If you want to strike it rich, my suggestion is to roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty, and invent something better than duct tape. Or at least make a bad movie with an aging movie star.

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Sales Explosion | Linda Panattoni of At Work Credits Pro/Vision Coaching with Placement Success

Posted on September 6, 2011 by PhilStalnaker

 

Linda has consistently been a solid producer for her non-profit organization, At Work, where she is a job placement specialist for people with developmental disabilities. She believes thoroughly in networking for her business, which is where we met her.

Linda became one of our first Academy clients, starting in the Networking 4 Introverts support group as well as taking the Time Management Workshop. Through those tools and the time she has spent with myself (Phil) and Paul, she has seen a significant increase in her time efficiency and marketing presentation, both of which have led to a major upswing in job placements.

Over the last few months Linda has gone absolutely gangbusters and all of us here at Pro/Vision Coaching are super excited for her and the continued success headed her way. We look forward to a continual relationship with her, as she has not only become a client, but a friend. Congrats, Linda!

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People That Pain You | Resolving Conflict in Business

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Doug Christy

My coaching team can tell you that business owner pains normally fall into three primary areas – money, time and people.  Will they ever make enough money, and if they do, will they ever have the time to enjoy it?  But those two topics will carry quite a few blog postings in the future.  Let’s explore the pain that normally hurts the most – people.

Before we start, we all should agree that people are often the source of our greatest pleasure and joy in life.  As the saying goes – “people – can’t live with them, can’t live without them.”  So what happens when you have a falling out with someone who is important to you, and need to pick up the pieces?  Not such a pleasure or joy anymore, is it?  Often we don’t pick up the pieces.  We simply leave them laying all over the place, hoping they’ll pick themselves up.  Ever wait for the other person to pick up the pieces?  How’s that going for you?

In the world of the small business owner, who normally wraps their business around their own technical or professional talent, leading and managing humans, carrying all that emotional and needy stuff, typically isn’t one of those talents.  Pretty easy to have a falling out with a fellow partner, key employee, spouse, girlfriend, dog…….sorry, that’s impossible.  Dogs aren’t humans, regardless of what they think.  It often comes down to either picking up the pieces or sacrificing the health of the business, the business owner, their family, their employees, their community.

These 2 definitely think they are human.

Falling outs will happen, but picking up the pieces isn’t impossible -  hard maybe, but not impossible.  Hard to believe how many falling outs my firm has had to coach through these past several years (not to mention my nearly 25 plus years prior running companies and owning businesses).  Although my coaching team uses many techniques and tools to work through this issue with their clients, I have found that the following principles normally apply across the board.  We should remind ourselves of these following six “I reminders” when we have a falling out, especially with someone we care about:

1. I am not perfect.  If we believe so, then we see absolutely no need to change anything about ourselves.  We will only see imperfections in others.
2. I will not take advantage of you. So many people in our lives are afraid to open up to us for fear of being exploited – taken advantage of.  The other person may limit access to us simply to protect themselves.
3. I care about you.  As hard as this one may sound, regardless of the other person’s actions, they need to know we still care about them.  Stop caring, start hating.  Or worse, become indifferent.
4. I value you.  Not only do you care about them, but you recognize that they bring value to you – your business, your life.  How flattering is that?
5. I will hold you accountable.  The other’s actions may very well have been damaging, hurtful to you.  You aren’t going to let them off the hook.  You need not run from conflict, but face it head on and hold the other accountable.  The pieces will never be picked up unless you do.
6. I need our relationship restored.  Remember what the relationship was like in the best of times?  It’s only normal to want that again.  Life is too short.  Pick up those pieces and start building back what you had.

Picking up the pieces and restoring a relationship isn’t easy.  In fact, it may be one of the most difficult undertakings of your life.  And it may be the most important action you ever take.  At Pro/Vision Coaching, helping business owners restore relationships – pick up the pieces – is all part of helping them achieve their vision, their dreams. That is why we have adopted a holistic coaching model, realizing that owners are people, and people can cause us our greatest pains – and our greatest joys.

Having trouble restoring a relationship?  Perhaps we can help. If you would like information about our Communication Workshop, or about how to have us run the workshop in your company, call 425-516-7478 (for Seattle Metro area) or 402-301-6987 (for Omaha Metro area).

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Heritage Bank Provides Great Service Because of Happy Employees

Posted on August 25, 2011 by PhilStalnaker

Every year, the Puget Sound Business Journal selects companies to be awarded as Washington’s best workplaces. This designation goes to companies that provide their employees with a wonderful working experience. This is hugely important, because happy employees make happy customers. Happy customers make repeat paying and referral giving customers. It also keeps HR costs down, due to low turnover ratios.

Doug Christy, owner of Pro/Vision Coaching (a local business coaching firm) says about the importance of happy employees, “The power of a happy employee base is significantly underrated in business today. Happy employees stay longer, decreasing the cost of the hiring and training process; they are more customer friendly, which will inevitably increase revenue; and they are committed, which means they will be more likely to go the extra mile for their employer. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t take those into consideration and become stuck in turnover issues and employee complaints – both are huge wastes of time and resources”.

Heritage Bank Washington, and local Bellevue branch manager Heather Rane (520 112th Ave NE), deserve serious credit for their efforts in creating such a positive work atmosphere. They were selected as the 2011 Gold Medal winners of the PSBJ award for the “Large Company” category. The full story of their win can be found on the PSBJ.

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Low on Cash Reserves? Find Hidden Cash for Your Business!

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Paul Hajek

We hear this all the time from small business owners. They look at their Profit & Loss statement (a.k.a. Income Statement) which shows all this activity in their business, and yet their Balance Sheet (and checkbook) show little to no cash! So where did it all go?

A big challenge for a lot of business owners is understanding the difference between profit and cash flow. While the P&L may be showing growing sales and profit, the owner may notice that their cash balance is shrinking or that they are struggling to meet payroll.

Depending on your business, here are a couple of the most likely places to look for your cash:

1. Inventory: if you’re a retailer you probably see your products on the shelves as well as in your back room. What I see are big piles of cash. Don’t fall in love with your product. Its sole purpose is to provide cash for your business and if it’s not selling, then it’s just cash sitting on your shelves instead of in your bank account.

2. Accounts Receivable: this is a big one for a lot of our contracting clients, but can be especially true for anyone dealing with large companies. Let’s say you’re an electrical contractor working on some new construction. A typical situation might be that your crew finishes work during the first week of the month, you bill your client at the end of the month and your client doesn’t pay that bill for 60-75 days after they receive the invoice. That’s about 3 months since you completed the work AND PAID YOUR OWN CREW not to mention probably paid for supplies for the job! You’ve been acting as a bank for your client’s business.

3. Interest: again, another common culprit for small business owners. Depending on your situation, it may be interest on credit cards you used to start the business or perhaps on a tapped out line of credit you have with your bank. In any case, these ongoing interest payments (along with principal payments) can be a significant drain on your cash resources.

4. Accounts Payable: while you might believe in paying all your vendors on time or ahead of time to get a couple percent discount, keep in mind that you holding onto cash for an additional 2-4 weeks could be the difference between staying in business or going out of business when things get tight.

One thing I didn’t mention above, which may be more the case for a business that is not profitable, is under utilization of your labor. We often hear phrases like “I have to keep my guys busy.” Think about how crazy that sounds! You’re not in business to “keep your guys busy and on the payroll,” you’re in business to make money. It never ceases to amaze us how often owners can lose sight of this very basic principle.

Your number 1 job as owner of the business is to make sure your business has cash to survive. One of the tools we introduce early to most of our clients is a 90-day cash forecast. This helps give the business owner a 3-month window for any cash shortages and provides tremendous comfort for the owner that the business will have cash for the next 90 days. If you would like a copy of the template we use for this, call me at 425-516-7478.

Cash

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