Is Your Saw Sharp Enough?

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Have you noticed that in recent years, breaking through the barrier as a sales professional takes more than in the past? Do you feel separation anxiety over the lack of “live” shoppers because everyone is online? Have you wrapped your head around the fact that the vast majority of relationships start online, even though we’re not talking about dating?

If these are feelings that have taken up real estate in your head then your saw is not even close to sharp enough. In fact, you may not even have the right blade out! There is no job in the universe you can do best unless you grab the right tools. Even if you do happen to grab the right one, didn't your mom or dad ever tell you that “a dull blade is more dangerous than a sharp one?” Sorry, but the folks were right. The same is true for marketing and sales in our new normal. You can’t cut down the harvest as well without the right tool and the saw sharpened.

Oh I know, I’ve heard all the reasons people give why studying their craft isn’t all that important:

They were “born with natural people skills and that’s what matters most when selling.”

They are tech geniuses and “live communications” aren’t important anymore in this age of automations. 

They’ve been “doing it for years and know about all there is to know already.” 

There’s only so much you can do because “the economic climate will dictate how sales go.”

“Pretty soon AI will take over the world and people won’t be needed to sell things.”

“Excellent e-commerce is all you need, not sales representatives.”  

“These sales books mostly benefit the authors who make millions on them, they are all pretty much the same.” 

“Why sit around studying sales when you could be "making it happen?” 

“Selling never really changes and I’ve read most of the old masters such as Zig Ziglar” 

As succinctly as possible, I will debunk each one of these common statements, which object to investing in learning selling trade secrets and new techniques. Suffice it to say that if you utter any of the above, your saw is dull. It is safe to say that you can’t come close to cutting all the meat there is to eat off the bones.

OK, systematically, one at a time, (class is in session kiddies) let’s look at the fallacies listed above. Let’s calibrate just how far from the truth each of these objections are. Actually, I shouldn’t give them the respect of labeling them “objections” because they are more like “excuses.” This will be fun. Some people contend the following: 

They were “born with natural people skills and that’s what matters most when selling.” The most commonly held definition of "people skills” socially is when people purportedly have the “gift of gab.” The problem here is that “tellin’ ain’t sellin'.” The ability to ask questions is way more important in the game of sales than the guy or gal who can be the “life of the old proverbial party.” General population people skills may qualify you to learn the sales craft well, but it by no means indicates that you have mastered it. The proper questions to get people to open up to you, timing, the chronological order of the topics you approach, and the methods needed to shepherd a prospect through the sales funnel all take study and practice to perform at the highest possible level. Don’t flatter yourself because you have a fun and entertaining personality and act like you are a sales academy grad. You may have the raw skills but without refinement, you’re not a sales pro, just a fun person to visit with.   

(Told you this would be fun.)  

They are tech geniuses and “live communications” aren’t important anymore in this age of automations. There are items with universal appeal, thousands available on Amazon, that can be sold without a sales professional. The market is established, as is the supply chain and delivery method. In luxury marketing and specialty services spaces, technology will never be the entire answer. An app won’t deepen trust like a person can, which is what you have to sell before you sell anything of paramount significance. When it comes to items with artistic, social or lifestyle dimensions, it most often takes a concierge, a specialist, to lead a buyer down the path to making the best decision that they can make for themselves.   

They’ve been “doing it for years and know about all there is to know already.”  This has to be the most pompous position I’ve ever been around and believe you me, I’ve seen it plenty. The guy or gal who is a “know it all” and gets their fair share of sales because there is a section of the purchasing population that feels like they’ve found the perfect person when they act like they have all the answers. The problem is how limiting it is to sabotage your potential by appealing only to the weak and less educated. The only constant in the world is change, so you can never know it all and are lying to yourself and others if you fool yourself into thinking you do. This is an especially destructive attitude to bring to a highly educated prospect capable of making an impressive investment. All bright and innovative humans are drawn to people who are current and caring and not full of themselves. None of us can know it all and losing the opportunity to continue improving at your craft, the honorable craft of selling, is well, a tragedy. The number of gifted sales professionals that never reached their potential because they thought they already knew it all are as many as grains of sand on the beach. You know the type, the kind you have to outsell before they are forced to ask how you did it. The world of selling is chock full of great minds that you can steal a lick and some wisdom from. Adopt a mindset that learning can be fun and take you to places you never would have gone to. You can’t ever know it all, and you should never stop learning.  

There’s only so much you can do because “the economic climate will dictate how sales go.”  Every economy has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the worst things I’ve seen sales associates do, and I’ve seen it ruin some, is to spend an inordinate amount of time thinking that current events will shape their sales performance. The tragedy is that if you let it, it actually can. Regardless of what the world around you is doing, your job is the same everyday: find a way to help consumers make the best possible purchase decision. Let me be more blunt - your job is to: ”sell something to someone somewhere” so that you can take care of the people you love. That is true no matter how things are going politically, economically or globally. Even during the depression, there were people capable of buying things. In some economies new things sell better, in some used things; sometimes service gets a bump, sometimes retail does, but every circumstance provides a plethora of opportunities to serve the buying public.   

In the past forty years, Direct Success as a company and myself as a sales professional have found the proper services and marketing vehicles to help our clients grow. In the nineties as tech morphed branding into a different animal, after 9/11, every time the housing bubble burst, every time technology washes a new tsunami over us, we had to reinvent and reference the current “supply and demand” of the day. The only constant is change; since the sales world will always evolve and all businesses know it, it is not an excuse. Be aware of what it is that is timely that you and your company has to offer and concentrate on the consumer’s needs. There is always a sweet spot in the marketplace to be found.   

“Pretty soon AI will take over the world and people won’t be needed to sell things. I always find it amusing when people refer to AI like it is new. It started in 1956 at Dartmouth and has reached new heights, such as robots have, and yes things are getting smarter, but they should! We’ve been at this for a long time. 

I do believe that certain universally needed commodities can and should be sold using AI as the entire sales funnel. That makes total sense. When Alexa, on my Amazon Echo, recommends something I’ve purchased before or something that makes sense because of my past activities, not only do I NOT take offense, but I appreciate the system talking to me about something it makes sense that I might be interested in. But then there is the luxury marketing space. That is a completely different animal…

Yes there are the outliers and times when huge online or over the phone transactions do take place. Don’t bet your year or career on sitting around and waiting for the moon and stars to line up perfectly for that to happen enough to make your sales goals. A whole lot of time goes by before large purchases take place in the luxury marketing world. Why? Because the vast majority of people who buy a yacht want to walk on the deck and go for a spin around the bay, or visit the factory where it will be made before they pull the trigger on the boat of their dreams. Most real, sizable jewelry purchases happen after someone looks at the stone(s) under a lens. Most private jets are purchased after an inspection.  

Most high end handmade instruments after they have been played. Specialists, advice, demos and inspections, plus multiple communications will always be a part of the luxury marketing sales experience. Tires and widgets, maybe not, but nice things? I think so. This fact negates the excuse that AI will take over the world. My safe prediction is that there will always be new AI and that there will also always be “live” music and recreation. 

“Excellent e-commerce is all you need, not sales representatives.”    

Please reference my notes from the last excuse/objection.   

“These sales books mostly benefit the authors who make millions on them, they are all pretty much the same.” There are similarities between many sales books and the great authors share strong and memorable quotes from their peers, but the differences are mostly many and some pretty stark. I’ll go out on a limb and repeat a statement that is an indictment against folks who don’t discipline themselves enough to enrich themselves by reading. It is from one of my favorite authors, Matthew Kelly. He says “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body and prayer is to the soul. We become the books that we read.” The love of literature has fallen prey to the convenience of the tsunami of technology and finding facts in real time on their phones to the younger generations. We must champion it, be it hardback, paperback, Kindle or audio. 

Learning is best done by consuming quality writing and when many sales people say they don’t need to read any more sales books because they've “pretty much heard it all”, they haven’t read some of the really good new stuff that combines old school fundamentals with new technology. Nine times out of ten, if you are an owner or sales manager and your sales associate has this attitude, you can bet it is a sign of laziness because improving should never quit. I ordered a Jeb Blount and an Alex Hormozi book two days ago that just showed up and I will read after I finish the current Seth Godin and Chris Voss book. There are NO similarities in their writing styles and you can learn a lot from each one. Simply Google their bios and you’ll see that “where they’re coming from” is independent and they all can help you place new sales technique tools in your sales tool box. I strongly reject this objection and am living proof that if you want to be self-taught, sales is a great career inside which you can do it. I am profoundly grateful to all the writers I have learned from.    

“Why sit around studying sales when you could be "making it happen?” 

This objection assumes that you are going to, through your own reasoning and experience, end up as prepared to be a top performing sales professional as you would without studying, which is a form of preparation. As Ben Franklin put it: “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” I have yet to see two talented sales professionals, one who studied and one who didn’t, end up with an equal amount of success. Studying and practicing your craft always results in better preparation, and who are you anyway to argue with the prolific inventor who captured lightning the first time and was an innovative wonder?   

“Making it happen” without a method or track to run on means you believe in “shooting from the hip.” I hate to inform you that that is not an efficient way to approach a sales career. Everything built needs a solid foundation. Everything can be built stronger and higher with a solid foundation. The perception that studying is a waste of time ignores the years of time saved that being efficient provides. Laying the groundwork for a sales by being well read and efficient NEVER costs you time or money. It saves you time and makes you more money than just “winging it” and “making it happen” without a method and some technique 

“Selling never really changes and I’ve read most of the old masters such as Zig Ziglar”  You have to be living under a rock to believe this. More than likely, if this is your objection, you are the quintessential “know it all” that believes that the market will come to your without any prospecting and when it does, you’ll knock down whatever comes your way. There was a day when there was more retail floor traffic, and you were fine without outreach techniques but guess what? Things have changed incredibly!

The whole world is online, so how deeply ridiculous is that statement about selling never changing? My mother at the time of this writing is 87. She always goes online. Before she buys anything she looks at the reviews, before she meets her friends to try a new restaurant also. She uses Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family and gets solicited there with items based upon her online activities. Selling and marketing have changed! I’ve had 4-5 clients I couldn't get to be successful with their lead gen follow up because they didn’t want to text. Their conversion rates were 30% of those who did. And there is Chat. Services such as Podium have proven extremely helpful for optimizing website pages for conversion. Enough said? 

It was fun looking at those excuses I liberally categorize as objections. None of them hold any water. They point toward a person who doesn’t believe in sharpening their saw. There are three most effective ways to get better at sales:

Study via books (audio inc.), podcasts, and training courses. If you search, you will find tons of options online. The trick is to take the time to familiarize yourself with any of these and after sampling them gravitate toward those that “speak to you personally.” I could list some favorite authors who have written books and also have podcasts such as Jeffrey Gitomer and Jeb Blount, and it’s hard to go wrong with best sellers, but the important thing is to get started and begin allowing some ultra talented sales coaches to stimulate your thoughts about best practices and methods. I never swallow 100% of any coach's advice and neither should you, BUT if a piece of advice shows up from multiple successful sales professionals, you can most likely take it to the bank. They’re not all wrong, right? 

You will gravitate toward those things that work best for you but realize that random wisdom about the game of sales is not a method. A method is a track to run on that you can inject with techniques inside of said method. I have outsold people as well read, simply by having a method to refine. The knowledge from multiple sources should be inserted into the proper place inside your method. I suggest my own “5 Steps to Selling Success” which is outlined “step by step” in an article on: directsuccessent.com under the “resources” section. If you sharpen your saw and adopt a chronological order of discipline within which to practice the wisdom you glean from your books, podcasts and courses, your application of all the gained wisdom will have a flow. I personally can’t imagine a good sales course without a method to offer. Let me give you a strong piece of advice: find a book like Spin Selling by Neil Rackham or The Challenger Sales by Adamson and Dixon regardless of the generation it comes from, and fold your trade secrets and techniques into a method. Similar to building a house, the foundation must come first. The tech tools can be adapted to the method, the techniques can be injected, but the train carrying the passengers has to exist to leave the station effectively. Naturally, my belief is that the “5 Steps to Selling Success” I authored is the best choice because it IS a method and you don't have to read a book to digest and start using it. 

Since everything “good or bad” starts with an attitude, your first step, regardless of the method you adhere to, is to get a good attitude and grow a hunger for sales knowledge. It is an honorable profession which has suffered some dishonorable players and therefore has a bad first impression in the minds of way too many consumers. Your job is to be the educated, anti-pushy sales professional who conducts themselves ethically and hits the top of your profession by knowing and executing it to the best of your ability. I referenced Ben Franklin earlier and his warning to be prepared. I will end this article with some sage advice in the form of a quote from Good ole Honest Abe that is in the same vein: "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."    

Is your saw sharp enough? No, neither is mine. The best sales professionals consider it a lifestyle, not a job. I had a business friend remind me he was going on vacation and I told him not to think about selling too much to which he quoted Willie Nelson saying it was, ”Always on My Mind.” I personally feel like the old Confucius cliche about how much I enjoy selling. It goes, ”If you love what you do, you don’t work a day in your life.” 

In summary, and relative to selling well and at your highest personal level, I advise you to - “Sharpen that saw or your greatness will go unachieved.” - Jack Klinefelter