Our strength grows out of our weakness. Out of resistance. This is a bit of Emerson (Law of Compensation) for the uninitiated. Emerson believed that it wasn’t until we were ‘pricked and sore‘ that we got busy changing our behavior. That we get stronger with resistance. And that to “sit on the cushion of advantage” means to go to sleep. And when we’re asleep we’re not growing. We’re dying.
Arrogance seems to be a sure predictor of coming loss. I once knew a lady who was in line for a big promotion. She had pretty much counted on it happening. So she went into the last interview and her arrogance shone thru. All the leaders in the room saw a side of her they hadn’t seen before and she was passed over.
Do you get cocky in the sales process?
Do you ever say to yourself, “This is a no-brainer”?
Or, “This is a slam dunk.”
That’s the last thing you’ll hear before the word “On second thought, we’re not interested.”
Lou Holtz, a retired American football coach and an active sportscaster, was being interviewed on radio about bowl games, the NFL and football talent. He said something that I thought 
was profound; that he sees, “Work ethic as a talent.”
He said when he was selecting players for his college teams he was as interested in how hard they worked and how interested in improving they were (versus their raw, natural talent.)
I thought that was quite insightful as we leaders look for talent in our organizations. Since our firm helps people select the right talent to bring into an organization and train on how to grow the talent once they get there, we find the same thing to be true—work ethic is a talent.
One of my clients used to tell me that if he could find ten people with a great work ethic he would be able to build a world-class team. His feeling on curiosity was that markets are changing so fast along with technology and customer demands that you must have a high curiosity factor if you are to find the problems customers have and learn new ways to produce better results for your companies.
3 Personality Traits That Can Determine Someone’s Work EthicWe use the Hogan Assessment Report for selection and development. It allows us, as trainers, to predict job performance.
Throughout our work, we’ve noticed there are three personality traits which indicate how teachable, trainable and adaptable someone is:
Ambition is the degree to which a person has a full fuel tank and does not need artificial motivation to get them out of bed in the morning. They are wired to take initiative. Read more
Just as you wouldn’t be quick to quote a prospect—the same goes for your current account.
Many amateur sales people think that when a client calls and wants a quote on something that we are in service to them by emailing a quote with no process. Wrong. You owe your client the very basics of the sales process. Take them through the process.
“I’m happy to quote you. Can you tell me a little about where you are in the process and what you’re looking for?”
When someone makes the call to you asking for a quote, just remember they are 75% of the way down their process. That’s dangerous. Don’t get lazy and jump to the quote.
When a prospect is being painfully reserved and is not sharing much with you, sometimes the best thing you can say is:
That one question has enormous power to it because the answer will determine whether that person actually is looking for your help or not. You become an annoying sales person when you’re trying to help someone who doesn’t want it.
If you’re a Caskey client and are ready to be coached, or are considering entering into a coaching engagement, this video shares 7 of the most pressing issues you should consider.
Bill reviews all 7 and gives you some additional tips so that you can be ready for personal growth in your coaching engagement.
Many of our models in our world are broken, but it’s hard for us to reinvent any model unless we look closer at what it is now.
In this video, Bill Caskey explains how the old sales model of “convince and persuade” no longer works. He offers a new way to look at selling and gives one tip to help you get the power back in the sales cycle.
A few weeks ago, a sales person came into our office and was pitching a new water system. They talked about the features and benefits of their offer, but NEVER asked me any questions about what I wanted. And then I told them the price was too high.
If you’ve ever had a prospect say your price was too high, it could’ve been you forgot to ask the right questions.
In this video, Bill Caskey, Author of Email It — A Seller’s Guide to Emails That Work with 20 Pre-Written, Ready-to-Use Emails, discusses the most common questions on emailing he gets from his clients.
This is one of the most common issues we’ve noticed: How does the seller deal with the sales process when it gets stalled?
This email tutorial gives the EXACT framework you should use when you must write this email.