Sales is a funny game. In my opinion there are two kinds of people in sales – order takers and salespeople. An order taker is someone who waits for a prospect to walk through the door, calls them, emaisl them and then simply defines what they sell and handles the order for the prospect as needed and then makes the sale only when the prospect sells themselves essentially. A salesperson is someone who actively works the deal, handles the prospects concerns, objections and considerations and makes the deal happen. A salesperson makes sales happen. An order-taker simply facilitates a sale.

Being an order-taker is easy. Being a salesperson is challenging, takes discipline and takes skill, confidence and control to make deals happen. Salespeople are rare. Order-takers are abundant. Make a conscious choice to be a salesperson and then really decide in your own mind to become a PRO. Study everything and work your deals to make them happen. Focus on the next steps needed to be executed and go and execute them. Write down the considerations, objections or concerns, come up with handlings and call the prospect to handle them. MAKE THINGS HAPPEN. Conclude deals and push cycles to a done. Salespeople control cycles to cause the outcome they want and they push each step forward until it’s done. Don’t use the word “wait”… that’s for order-takers.

If you want to win in sales, be a salesperson not an order-taker.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

If you have ever experienced a sale that seems to come to a slow halt and moves into waiting mode…. it’s due to a consideration that has not been handled by the sales rep. In other words, the prospect has a concern that your product or service won’t handle their problem or some other concern about it that they aren’t telling you.

So, you need to find out what those concerns or considerations are in order to handle them. The second you can get the prospect to tell you what they are, you can then move to sell and close the deal but up to that point, it’s basically dead in the water.

Once handled, the cycle can go from something that was quickly becoming a future cycle or possibly never, to one that happens now. It’s a massive time saver.

A great way to handle this is to email the prospect and ask them point blank, “is there any consideration or concern you have that I haven’t gone over with you that would prevent you from moving forward…. let me know so I can help…” Then once you have gotten the feedback, handle it with whatever is needed, a case study, client testimonial, video that really sells the product, phone call to walk them through the process etc.

Hope this helps you with your sales!

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

It’s pretty easy to sort of coast in life because while most people want to attain their goals, many don’t actually want the extra headache involved with making it happen. Because the extra amount of work is sufficient, no two ways about it. But know this, to attain success or any goal it only requires you to push yourself a little more than you are now. The funny thing is, most don’t push themselves very hard at all. They just sort of do what is necessary. So you can bank on that. This means that if you’re one of the few that push yourself harder than most, the chances of success or attaining any given goal is quite good.

Just look at any goal you’re trying to attain and write down what you think you would do to attain it or what would be normal for you and then step everything up a notch. Using fitness as an example, if you wanted to attain a certain physique and felt that you could run 1 mile 3 times per week to attain it, then write down that instead you will up it to 4 times per week and run 2 miles each time. Yes, it’s added work and it requires you to push yourself relatively hard but you have to ask yourself…. “how bad do you actually want to get in shape?”

By doing this exercise, you may find that 1. you really want to attain the goal and are willing to push yourself to do what it takes to get it or 2. you don’t really want it bad enough and so settle with the idea that you won’t ever attain it. I use running and getting in shape as an example because it has a great correlation to business and success in general. It takes physical push to attain anything and you need to assess what your willing to do and how bad you actually want the goal you’ve named out because it will play a key role in how much you push yourself to attain it. It’s also not a one time thing. You’re not going to decide once and then all is good. You need to decide and then remind yourself every single day, every hour why you are doing it and what you want so you keep yourself motivated to attain the goal and you keep pushing yourself along. You are you’re best personal coach you could have. You need to push yourself because no one else will.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

Have you ever really looked at what it takes to attain a goal? It’s easy to make a goal and then go to work towards it but it’s really only half the exercise. You need to break it down. What are the component parts of the goal and what are all of the steps needed to attain it?

Once you start working out the actual steps and any numbers associated with attaining the goal, beef up your numbers because I can almost equivocally assure you that your numbers will be low. People are masters at underestimating what is needed to attain a goal. You need to do your homework upfront, work out the actions needed and work out the correct effort needed to attain the goal. If you feel you have overestimated it, that’s OK because it means your either right on track or you may produce slightly more which is a plus-point.

So for your next project or goal, take some time to plan what it takes to make it happen. Don’t just write down the plan or goal and then start pursuing it. Work out all of the actions to pull it off. This will help shift your reality and open your eyes to the work involved to make it happen. You can then plan and predict better and execute the actions needed which will make the target infinitely easier to attain and the overall probability of attainment will skyrocket.

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

OK, so there are a huge amount of digital ad companies out there coming up with the new cutting edge method to control the consumers buying habits and get them to buy their clients product or service. So, in the chase for the best method, they’ve developed tools that track sites you visit and then attempt to predict what ads you should see over and over so you buy that product.

Sounds pretty good in theory. I mean, that makes sense right? If I go to a site, then it would serve to logic that I am interested in that product or service and therefore I should see ads related to it that should cause me to buy. Except, I’m not interested in them and here’s why. I was doing some research for one of my clients related to other similar companies pricing scales etc which caused me to go to a few sites that I wouldn’t normally go to. I then proceeded to see ads all over the place for these companies. I then was looking into possible ideas for the weekly bonuses for my sales team and while looking came across sites like Disney and then again proceeded to see ads all over the place. This caused me to start looking at all the ads and I realized that I had no interest in many of them. I then started thinking about how many ads these behavioral strategies are making me miss. In other words, the ads I should be seeing, I’m not.

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So, the question is, how do the ads actually get to the right person at the right time? I’m not in the digital ad business but we do know the answer to this question, however, I don’t want to make this blog a pitch for our services so I leave you with that thought.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

As we grow a little older and become more involved in business which includes the ups and downs that sometimes occur, it’s easy to get a little too serious about it all. We tend to become a little edgier with people. A little less polite at times. A little less friendly. All the while working toward being successful but the irony is that being serious is very counter-productive to success.

Richard Branson is someone I admire in business. If you know a little about him, then you know that he’s not remotely serious about his work and yet his success is enormous both financially and in general. One could argue that he has a lot to be happy for and that would be true but he’s been this way all along. If you inspect the points in your life that worked out the best. The times when everything seemed to go your way – I’m willing to bet that it was the time when you were having the most fun and were playful in spirit.

Monitor your level of “seriousness” and focus on making yourself act and be less serious and you’ll see greater success. You can always be determined and professional and focused on what you’re doing but keep a light heart and have fun with it – because if your not having fun, you may as well get out now.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

When you’re selling a prospect you need to understand that it’s similar to a lock combination. There are several digits that you need to get right in order to open the lock. The lock combinations are considerations or objections from the prospect. More consideration really. So, you need to know that. If the prospect tells you they are sold but they still are not buying right then and there (the contract isn’t signed and money isn’t collected) then you haven’t actually nailed all of the combinations and for all intents and purposes – the lock is still locked.

So continue selling all the way through. Keep thinking about why the prospect is even talking with you. What do they need? What problem are they trying to handle? Once you have answered these questions, keep selling them on this until you have handled every consideration and nailed the combo to open the lock and close the deal. See, you may have handled 7 out of 8 considerations the prospect may have but the deal won’t close because there is still one left. You need to continue to sell until you handle that remaining point that completes the deal, opens the lock and concludes the sale.

Do not buy the prospects reason for why they haven’t bought (budget, timing, delays, other reasons etc) it’s none of them. You need to handle the real considerations and once you do, the deal is done. You’ll know it when you get there. It’s as clear as seeing a lock click and the vault door open.

- Robert Cornish
CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

It’s said that a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link. While it’s probably debatable whether that is true or not, we’ll use that as an analogy for this blog. The weakest link being your management team or executives going into agreement with the supposed problems or barriers put forth by the staff of the company. In other words, the actual problem is that anyone in an executive position is actually agreeing with the problems being suggested by your staff and by that agreement, making it a reality for the company which hurts many areas of the company resulting in bigger and bigger problems and crashed stats.

So the challenge is to get your management team and executives to disagree with the idea of obstacles, problems or barriers. They must be willing and able to listen to the staff and understand the problems but then be strong minded enough and strong willed to know that they are not really problems regardless of what is being said by the staff. They must push the staff toward handling the supposed problems. By disagreeing I mean, mentally not buying into the problem. For example, you may have a VP over the sales area who has a sales rep come to him or her to say that the reason there were no sales lined up today is because all of the prospects the sales rep is dealing with are getting answers back for various questions and so the sales rep needs to wait for the answers to close the deals. So in this scenario, the VP of Sales would become your weakest link and would add fuel to the fire to ultimately create bigger problems for the company by simply “buying in” to the idea presented by the sales rep why no sales could occur that day. The VP of Sales would then present that same idea to the senior executives who also buy in and the ripple effect continues to poison the other sales reps as the agreement of this idea continues to the point that sales have come to a grinding halt. 

So the correct handling is for the VP of Sales to listen to the sales rep’s reason and then immediately correct the sales rep to say something like, “I understand what you’re saying here but the truth is, all sales are caused by us not by waiting on the prospect. We’re the ones that make sales today or not. So, make a list of every way that you can get in touch with your prospects today to get an answer back today. Find any reason to call them as well as create a list of anyone you haven’t called or need to get in touch with and then write the entire list down. Make a copy for me as well and then email and call everyone on the list today with an exact plan for what you will do to close each deal on the list today. I will check up with you to view progress at 10AM, 2PM and 5PM to see if you need anything. Thanks” This could be communicated many different ways but the point is, the VP of Sales would not express agreement or go into agreement with the idea that there won’t be any sales today based on the reason put forth by the sales rep. The other sales reps would also see this as an example and realize that the VP operates this way and it will start to rub off on them as well. 

A culture will develop around not agreeing with barriers or obstacles in the way of the company goals. The anchors to this strategy is your executives and management team. They have to be strong mentally to not be swayed by any of the staff’s reasons so they become weak minded to agree with the problems or barriers. Their strength and complete disagreement will result in growth and expansion for the company. It will also result in a Spartan like team that pushes through all possible obstacles that present themselves. 

To end with a great quote that forwards this concept, in the movie Mission Impossible 2, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins discuss the mission they need to take on and Commander Swanbeck says “you think this will be difficult?” Ethan Hunt replies “Very” in which Commander Swanbeck says “Well this is not mission difficult Mr. Hunt, this is mission impossible…. difficult should be a walk in the park for you.” 

So that is the frame of mind. Damn the barriers. Disagree. 

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group

In this day and age, it’s common to have companies offering free services or operating on the “freemium” model but don’t get disillusioned into the idea that it’s the way to go – it isn’t. At least, it’s not the only way you want to operate. You have to work out a very clear plan that will pull in revenue to support anything that you plan to make free – someone has to pay for it after all.

One of the main problems with the free model is that it breeds a society that expects something for nothing. We start looking at our current economic state and it’s easy to see that a lot of companies need to knuckle down and really focus on driving revenue. 

What you don’t know and don’t see behind the scenes of these freemium modeled companies is that they’re heavily funded by venture capital which is acting like their revenue – only, it isn’t revenue it’s debt that is a liability strapping down the company. So the company needs to quickly figure out how to make enough revenue to cover the liability and fast. 

Meanwhile, the public (people) that do business with these companies with their free model start to crave more free service and expect everything free for nothing from them. This can really damage the economy as well as the operating basis of our society. 

So, we need to get back to a clean exchange system where the public expects to pay for a service and the company delivers that service or product once paid for. It’s a highly stable and sane model. I’m not saying the free model needs to go away but I do believe in many cases it needs to be scaled back. It’s not a great solution for most companies. Companies should collect money for their products or services rather than try to subsidize their free model via some other method like ads or venture capital which makes a pretty shaky company. 

When a company is working on a free model, it also de-values the product or service and the motivation internally to make it the best it can be but reversely, when you charge a fee upfront the whole company is motivated and incentivized to make it great. Their being paid to make it great. 

In this market, more companies need to drive revenue that can be injected back into the economy and in order to do that we need to build solid and stable companies that operate with clean exchange that charge a fee and deliver a product or service to the client. Then do this in high volume. Rather than some subsidized life dependent company that solely relies on advertisers or venture capital. Let’s get back to basics. 

- Robert Cornish

CEO, Richter10.2 Media Group