Integrity Selling Point #4: Develop trust and rapport

Ron Willingham's fourth point is, "Develop trust and rapport before any selling activity begins." See Integrity Selling; How to Succeed in Selling in the Competitive Years Ahead (New York: Doubleday, 1987), p. xv.

This is too often ignored, and ignoring it causes you to beg (See Todd Duncan's sales mistake #8). You have to develop trust first. And how do you get people to trust you? Act in a trustworthy manner. If you wonder what this is, see my early postings earlier in this blog.

What do you think about this? Post a comment to this blog.

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Integrity Selling

If Todd Duncan pointed out things you should avoid, Ron Willingham in Integrity Selling; How to Succeed in Selling in the Competitive Years Ahead (New York: Doubleday, 1987) gives you 10 elements of things to base your selling practice on.

To reiterate, an entrepreneur is a salesperson, so everything about sales applies to him or her.

You will notice the publication date on this book, 1987, is over 20 years ago. It shows that sound sales principles do not change with the times. They're just as valid today as they were then.

Willingham doesn't define "integrity," so how about this one from Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia:

In general, integrity refers to wholeness, in the sense of unity, consistency, purity, unspoiledness and uncorruptedness.

The etymology of the word integrity stems from the Latin adjective integer (whole, complete). In this context, integrity may comprise the personal inner sense of wholeness deriving from (say) honesty and consistency of character. As such, one can judge that others "have integrity" to the extent that one judges whether they behave according to the values, beliefs and principles they claim to hold.

Integrity comprises perceived consistency of actions, values, methods, measures and principles. As a holistic concept, it judges the quality of a system in terms of its ability to achieve its own goals. A value system's abstraction depth and range of applicable interaction may also function as significant factors in identifying integrity due to their congruence or lack of congruence with empirical observation. A value system may evolve over time while retaining integrity if those who espouse the values account for and resolve inconsistencies.

Integrity may be seen as the quality of having a sense of honesty and truthfulness in regard to the motivations for one's actions. The term "hypocrisy" is used in contrast to integrity for asserting that one part of a value system demonstrably conflicts with another, and to demand that the parties holding apparently conflicting values account for the discrepancy or change their beliefs to improve internal consistency.

I think Willingham would agree with this.

Here are the 10 ingredients in selling, as laid out in Willingham's "Statement of Integrity Values and Ethics:

1. Selling is an exchange of value.

2. Selling isn't something you do to someone, it's something you do for and with someone.

3. Understanding people's wants or needs must always precede any attempt to sell.

4. Develop trust and rapport before any selling activity begins.

5. Selling techniques give way to selling principles.

6. Integrity and high ethics are accepted as the basis for long-term selling success.

7. A salesperson's ethics and values contribute more to sales success than do techniques or strategies.

8. Selling pressure is never exerted by the salesperson. It's exerted only by prospects when they perceive they want or need the item being sold.

9. Negotiation is never manipulation. It's always a strategy to work out problems...when prospects want to work out the problems.

10. Closing isn't just a victory for the salesperson. It's a victory for both the salesperson and the customer.

I don't see anything on this list either with which Todd Duncan would disagree. As we go forward, we're going to unpack this list. Come to think of it, I don't think there's anything in Willingham's statement that Duncan would disagree with. In fact, I think they would get along quite well.

What do you think about this? Post a comment to this blog.

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's Fatal Sales Mistake #10: Stagnating

"Stagnating" is Todd Duncan's tenth fatal sales mistake. See: Todd Duncan, Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), pp. 181-198.

Duncan defines stagnating on p. 181 as "Losing your sales edge by neglecting your growth curve." He says, "Everything changes, all the time. Therefore, to overcome the fatal mistake of stagnating, so must you." [p. 191]

On pp. 192-195 Duncan gives four things to do so avoid stagnating

:1. Study your product like a consumer.

2. Survey your customers regularly.

3. Play the market. By this, he means, "become a buyer in your own market."

4. Survey Yourself Annually. Do an annual review of your skills, mission, everything. Obviously you will want your best clients playing the biggest part in helping you succeed."

I will add a fifth one. Read all the time. Read stuff coming out about your industry and be an expert. One of the things that differentiates us as our expertise and knowledge. If we don't keep abreast of customer trends we will lose. When the rate of change increases every day, staying abreast of things becomes harder and even more important.

What do you think about this? Are you becoming irrelevant? Post a comment to this blog.

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's Sales Mistake #9: Skimming

Duncan includes skimming, "focusing on surface profitability instead of client satisfaction [p. 159]". See: Todd Duncan, Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), pp. 159-179.

Duncan argues that to avoid this mistake, you have to move your business from relying on prospecting to reliance on partnering. He calls that moving "from solo to symphony."

On pp. 173-9, Duncan gives five rules for "transitioning your existing clients into productive partners." [p. 173]:

1. Take inventory. "Determine your current clients' value. Who are your lead players--your clients who can give you loads of their own business and lots of referral business."

2. Determine your investment level. "Once you know which clients can be lead players and which can provide consistent accompaniment to your sales business, you must then determine how much time and money you will invest in each of them in order to sustaining their business and tap their resources."

3. Cast your vision to your clients. "On an individual basis, schedule meeting with each of your clients who made the cut in the first step."

4. Orchestrate what parts they will play. "Obviously you will want your best clients playing the biggest part in helping you succeed."

5. Strike up the band.Literally. "The greatest partnership arrangement isn't going to make a bit of difference in your selling career until you put your wand in motion.

I've argued elsewhere in this blog that your business does not operate in isolation. Your business and it's context is your business. That includes competitor and collaborators. You should pay attention to this.

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of gambling? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's Sales Mistake #6: Arguing

Todd Duncan says that "arguing," which he defines on page 103 as "Selling your product before knowing your customer," is a mistake. See Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004).

He means trying to sell something to people before you have gotten their trust. Duncan, on pp. 117-120, points to 5 practices which help to establish trust:

1. Forget about the sale. Put the sale on the back burner and listen to your customer so you can focus on what he or she really needs.

2. Ask, don't argue. Concentrate on asking the right questions.

3. Listen with your fingers. Take notes.

4. Seek to understand. Verify what people tell you. Ask second or third questions until you understand.

5. Listen again. Review your notes and think again what people are telling you as you go along.

He says forget about trying to impose an agenda and genuinely listen to what is really needed and wanted in a situation. (p. 117)

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of arguing? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's Sales Mistake #3: Tinkering

Duncan defines Tinkering as "Treating the symptoms but not the sickness of poor selling efforts." See Todd Duncan, Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople make and how to avoid them. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), p 39.

Duncan claims tinkering is the most common mistake sales professionals make. Some examples from pp. 45-7:

>Trying to recover clients after sales fall through rather than trying to understand why clients are leaving.

>Trying to develop more scripts to overcome objectives rather than identifying prospects needs up front to prevent objections in the first place.

>Trying to overcome low sales by making more calls.

>Trying to work harder instead of smarter.

The solution: "Setting your standard and sticking to it....The more time you spend tinkering around," he says, "the more time you will have to produce successful sales." (p. 56)

There is no substitute for doing the hard work to understand how something should be done, then tracking outcomes and evaluating results and feeding that back into your understanding efforts. You should always be evaluating your proceedures, linking them to outcomes and goals.

He outlines how to really fix sales problems.

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of posing? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's Sales Mistake #2: Posing, part 1.

Todd Duncan, a pretty smart guy, and I took away many things in his book. This is specifically about sales, but since entrepreneurs are salespeople, they are words to live by. They help in everyday life, too.

He defines posing as "trying to sell before training to sell." (p. 17). He calls it "in the merciless worlds of sales...the equivalent of putting on on a clown suit and jumping into a corral with a two-thousand-pound rodeo bull." (p. 19)

He calls this "improvisational selling [p. 21]," and on pages 22-28 points to six ways to know if you are merely improvising:

1. False Confidence, such that "you never cultivate a genuine self-image."

2. Accidental Success, such that your results are never productive nor consistent."

3. Selling Reluctance, such that you "make a point to sell something you are really proud of selling."

4. Under performing Clients, "you...give them no reason to return to you or refer them to others."

5. Overworking: pursuing "a hit-and-miss approach to selling. If one costume doesn't work on the prospect, then you...try it on another." If not on that second on the third, and so on.

6. Job Turnover: "posing leads to short-lived sales positions."

This comes from Todd Duncan, Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople make and how to avoid them. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004).

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of it? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's Sales Mistake #1: Hyping.

Hyping, "relying on 'you can do it' propaganda to maintain your sales motivation." )p. 1) It's relying on external stimulation to gain energy and maintain your enthusiasm for selling. He would say you have to put yourself into the equation, find your true motive. Only then will you be successful and feel satisfied.

I agree with Duncan on all these points. You should get a copy of the book and read it. And if you feel like you've been guilty on this count, go through the exercise he suggests on pp. 12-14.

This comes from Todd Duncan, Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople make and how to avoid them. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004).

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of it? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Todd Duncan's 10 Fatal Selling Errors

Todd Duncan, in Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), lays out 10 basic selling errors. Entrepreneurs should recognize them so they don't do them.

Here they are:

1. Hyping: "Relying on 'You can do it' propaganda to maintain your sales motivation.' (p.1)

2. Posing: "Trying to sell before training to sell." (p. 17)

3. Tinkering: "Treating the symptoms but not the sickness of poor selling efforts." (p. 39)

4. Moonlighting: Buliding a business-based life instead of a life-based busines. (p. 61)

5. Muscling: Taking Lone Ranger actions instead of using team-connected strategies. (p. 83)

6. Arguing: Selling your product before knowing your customer. (p. 103)

7. Gambling: Making unplanned calls on unknown customers. (p. 123)

8. Begging: Seeking your customers' business before earning your customers' trust. (p. 141)

9. Skimming: Focusing of surface profitability instead of client satisfaction. (p. 159)

10. Stagnating: Losing your sales edge by neglecting your growth curve. (p. 181)

There's not one salesman who hasn't been guilty of none of these. All of us have done every one of them at one point in time.

The key is to keep them in your mind and recognize them when you're either doing them or contemplating on doing them.

But if you recognize your core values and act according to them as often as possible, you'll maximize your chances of never doing any of them.

I'm going to go over each one in subsequent posts. Entrepreneurship is a sales business. Need I say more?

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of it? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This material comes from This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Defensive Entrepreneur

Jerome Berkman, in The Age of the Entrepreneur (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1984/ v/10 (7), p. 72, 116, 118, 120), says:

The 'defensive' entrepreneur perceives that costs have to be cut as far as possible without eroding the quality necessary to sustain the base operation at an acceptable level and this must be supplemented with revenue-producing activities.

Berkman is apparently speaking of entrepreneurship in the health care industry. But this works elsewhere. Keeping costs as low as possible without jeopardizing sales growth enterprise and capacity for growth is key to success.

I'm writing from the abstract published in a journal abstracted in IBID, a journal on dietary supplements. But google the author and title and you should find it in your search results.

What do you think about this? I'd like to know. I'm looking to stimulate intelligent and serious (not imperatively unfunny, though) conversation. So, if you have something substantive to add, post a comment.

Entrepreneurship 2.0 is my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Revenue

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia:

In business, revenue or revenues is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. Some companies also receive revenue from interest, dividends or royalties paid to them by other companies.[1] Revenue may refer to business income in general, or it may refer to the amount, in a monetary unit, received during a period of time, as in "Last year, Company X had revenue of $32 million."

InvestorWords.com says:

For a company, this is the total amount of money received by the company for goods sold or services provided during a certain time period. It also includes all net sales, exchange of assets; interest and any other increase in owner's equity and is calculated before any expenses are subtracted. Net income can be calculated by subtracting expenses from revenue. In terms of reporting revenue in a company's financial statements, different companies consider revenue to be received, or "recognized", different ways. For example, revenue could be recognized when a deal is signed, when the money is received, when the services are provided, or at other times. There are rules specifying when revenue should be recognized in different situations for companies using different accounting methods, such as cash basis and accrual basis.

InvestorWords.com gives separate definitions for firms and for the government. We won't concern ourselves with the government.
The amount of money that a company actually receives during a specific period, including discounts and deductions for returned merchandise. It is the "top line" or "gross income" figure from which costs are subtracted to determine net income.

Investopedia defines revenue as:

The amount of money that a company actually receives during a specific period, including discounts and deductions for returned merchandise. It is the 'top line' or 'gross income' figure from which costs are subtracted to determine net income. Revenue is calculated by multiplying the price at which goods or services are sold by the number of units or amount sold.

Revenue is what we want to get from our businesses. You don't have any income without revenue and no revenue without sales.

What do you think about this? Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com./blog and for entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Sales

Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, says, "A sale is the pinnacle activity involved in selling products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity." InvestorWords.com defines sales growth as, "The increase in sales over a specific period of time, often but not necessarily a year."

You sell shoes. A customer tries on a pair. He likes it. You wrap them up for him, he pays you, and he's on his way. You made a sale.

Sales is an activity. Cash flows from it. Growth in sales creates growth in cash. Two other words, "revenue and income, are related concepts, but I don't think they're the same.

Jae Shim and Joel Siegel, in Financial Management (New York: Barron's Business Library, 2000), say:

"The sales budget is the starting point in preparing the master budget since estimated sales volume influences nearly all other items in the master budget. The sales budget ordinarily indicates that quantity in units of each produc the company expects to sell. That number is multiplied by the expected unit selling price to construct the sales budget." (p. 67)

What do you think about this? Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com./blog and for entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Relationship Marketing

Marketing relationships is in tune with the times. Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia describes it as

A form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaigns conducted in the 1970's and 1980's which emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on 'point of sale' transactions. Relationship marketing differs from other forms of marketing in that it recognizes the long term value to the firm of keeping customers, as opposed to direct or "Intrusion" marketing, which focuses upon acquisition of new clients by targeting majority demographics based upon prospective client lists.

That says it all. If you're interested in this, read the whole Wikipedia article and follow its links. Also google it because there's a lot of stuff out there.

Todd Duncan, in Killing the Sale; The 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), a book I highly recommend, lists "Skimming" as mistake #9 out of ten. To Duncan, skimming is "focusing on surface profitability instead of client satisfaction." (p. 159) He rightly points out that salespeople focus all their attention on developing leads, converting them into prospects, then making presentation and closing sales. Then they forget all about them and go on to the next lead.

We were just talking about this at a party Sunday night. My client, who had put on this surprise party for his wife, paid me an amazing compliment when he said "You put a lot more effort into developing relationships than most realtors." I loved to hear that.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Am I voice crying in the wilderness here? Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com and for entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.