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To do justice to this subject matter, one must make reference to Arthur
Millers legendary play entitled, The Death of a Salesman. To
refresh your memory, Miller won a Pulitzer Prize for his work, which he
described as, the tragedy of a man who gave his life, or sold it in
pursuit of the American dream. The main character in the play is Willy
Loman, who, after many years on the road as a traveling salesman, realizes
he has been a failure as a father and husband. His sons Happy and Biff are
not successful on his terms (being well-liked). Willys main claim
to fame was to use a smile and a shoeshine as the only sales
technique one needs to be successful in sales.
To say the least, Arthur Miller taught us that selling success need not
be at the expense of being a failure as a father or a husband. In other
words, being a great salesperson and being a great father/mother and a
husband/wife does not have to be mutually exclusive. For this alone, I
think he richly deserved the Pulitzer Prize, for today, far too many
people are placing business success ahead of the family and being a good
father/mother and a good husband/wife.
Today we have learned that Willys legendary smile and a shoeshine
selling technique is only 5 to 10 percent of selling skills. There are
plenty of other things that go into selling success today, which have been
addressed in previous Publishers Outlooks in this publication over the
last two decades.
Selling EvolutionFrom Door-To-Door To Electronic Selling
If you truly look at Arthur Millers play, I am sure the fact that
Willy Loman was a traveling salesman and often away from his family
significantly contributed to his failure to be a good father and a good
husband. We have also learned that by using electronic means, we can reach
as many as 35 or 40 customers per day by simply using the principles of
outbound telemarketing. Door-to-door (company-to-company) selling
techniques simply have not worked since the early 1980s, when the concept
of telemarketing came into being.
Telemarketing Was The Renaissance Of Selling, Like The Industrial
Revolution Was To Manufacturing
In the late 1970s, being disenchanted with the performance of my
door-to-door sales staff, I picked up the phone one day and in about one
hour I was able to reach six customers and sell three pages of
advertising. By the end of the week, and while working ONLY an hour a day,
I was able to sell 15 pages of advertising for our publication called
Radiation Curing back in 1979. That encouraged me that I may have
discovered something. I conducted a literature search and found no
information pertaining to the use of the telephone in selling. By then I
realized that indeed I might have discovered a new electronic method of
selling. As a first order of business, I filed for a registered trademark
for the word Telemarketing. When the United States Patent and
Trademark Department issued our registered trademark for Telemarketing,
I was then sure, more than ever before, that we certainly were on to
something.
In 1982, we decided to launch Telemarketing magazine and share
our newly discovered concept with the rest of the world. To the extent
that this was a pioneering effort, it seemed that no one else besides us,
as far as we could tell, was doing anything like this and, therefore, our
new great magazine was in jeopardy of not having enough to write about.
With great difficulty and with a lot of blood, sweat and tears and with
tremendously hard work on the part of our staff, particularly Linda
Driscoll, who I am proud to say has been associated with the editorial
staff of this publication since 1982, we were able to lay the foundation
for what is now the multibillion-dollar telemarketing, call center,
customer interaction and CRM business and technology. Yes, it was very
difficult to get this great concept off the ground, but the joy of being
successful and actually changing the course of selling from door-to-door
to electronic means was definitely worth all the problems. Incidentally,
the tag line for Telemarketing magazine was: The Magazine Of
Electronic Marketing & Communications.
From Young And Arrogant Scientist To Respectful Salesman
In my early career, I was hired by one of the largest chemical
companies in the world as a research chemist. This company had a great
policy in which they would transfer promising young employees from
department to department in order to give them diversified experience and
prepare them for bigger and better things in the future. I once complained
to my boss by saying, I studied chemistry and chemical engineering in
college. Why am I working in the sales department, marketing department or
human resource department? The supervisor answered, What you studied
in college is what you think you are good at. We want to find out what you
really are good at. The supervisors wisdom and logic was so
overpowering that it overcame my young and inexperienced arrogance and
helped me realize that what they were doing to me was actually good for
the company and good for me. During the above period when I was
transferred to the sales department, on my first day, the sales manager
came to me and gave me a tie clip on which the following abbreviations
appeared: YCDBSOYA. I asked him what it stood for. He said, You Cant
Do Business Sitting On Your Ass. In other words, the sales manager
wanted me to travel company-to-company and sell. If you look at this
situation carefully, you will see that Arthur Millers proverbial
salesmans business model fits exactly into what my sales manager
expected of me, which was be on the road all the time and sell
company-to-company and door-to-door. If one does not do justice to the
situation, this particular scenario spells disaster for the family,
including having dysfunctional children and an unhappy married life. Thus,
the death of the salesman. By contrast, by minimizing the
door-to-door, on-the-road grind of selling, telemarketing has helped
contribute to the quality of family life.
The CEO Had A Good Idea
After the second year of publishing Telemarketing magazine, one day
Mr. Larry Kaplan, CEO of Tele Business USA, an outstanding B-to-B
teleservices outsourcing company, called me and said, Nadji, do you
know what is the greatest achievement of telemarketing? I gave him a
half a dozen suggestions, but he didnt buy any of them, then I gave up
and asked Larry, What do you think is the greatest achievement of
telemarketing? He answered, Telemarketing has proved that YOU CAN
DO BUSINESS SITTING ON YOUR ASS! And when you think about it, this is
100 percent right on. This must have been the greatest evolution in sales:
that of transforming the sales process from door-to-door to contacting 35
to 40 customers per day versus 2 or 3 companies or customers per day via
the door-to-door method. And, of course, we have learned that selling is a
numbers game. He or she who makes the greatest number of calls to the
right audience, sells the most. And thusthe phenomenal success of the
telemarketing industry, which has now evolved into CRM, contact center,
call center and assorted other names, all of which are based on the same
principles of inbound and outbound telemarketing, which this publication
has taught to the whole world since 1982.
Jack Welchs Philosophy On Sales Management
Last October, my son Rich and I had the great honor of having
breakfast with Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of General Electric, who has
outperformed any other CEO known to mankind.
That day was one of the highlights of my life, being so close to such a
great man whose accomplishments were far and beyond any other CEO in the
world. In response to what is the most effective way to handle your sales
managers, I recall that Jack replied, There are four types of sales
managers, as follows:
- A sales manager who upholds company values, i.e., integrity, always
doing the right thing for the customer and legally earning a living.
If the sales manager upholds the above values and makes the budget
numbers, that sales manager is worth his weight in gold.
- A sales manager who does not uphold company values and does not meet
the numbers. The solution: Get rid of him!
- A sales manager who upholds the values, but does not make the
numbers. This person deserves a second chance.
- A sales manager who does not uphold the values, but makes the
numbers. Jacks solution: Get rid of him!
Among other words of wisdom that we learned from Jack that memorable
day were as follows:
- A company must always be ready to change.
- 5-year plans are a waste of time and they are worthless.
- Im a coach and a cheerleader and I love to win.
- Every employee must feel they can reach their dream by working for
the company.
Wow, I really learned a great deal just from those comments. Naturally,
his best selling book called Jack: Straight From The Gut is highly
recommended. I have enjoyed reading it and I strongly recommend every
business leader read it.
Not only has the evolution from door-to-door to electronic selling
changed the methodology of sales, customer service, CRM and the whole
customer interaction area, but also, it has completely transformed the
sales management process. To be sure, a smile and a shoeshine simply
does not cut it anymore. Over the years, as electronic selling has
increased selling productivity dramatically, by the same token, it has
changed the function of sales management, i.e., managing, hiring,
compensation, motivation and recognition, and providing guidelines and
controls have also changed. Heretofore, a personal interview would do the
job, but today, not only do you need a personal interview, you also need
to do a telephone interview. Once hired, train the person extensively
about product knowledge, competitive knowledge and industry knowledge, and
above all, instill in the salespeople that they must under promise and
over deliver and always hold the salesperson responsible for upholding
company values and meeting the sales objectives.
To effectively manage the modern sales staff, one must continue to
train the people, explaining the value of maintaining an up-to-date
database: daily cleaning of the database is vital to success. In addition,
the modern salesperson must know that today is the age of relationship
selling. And that means you must be of service to your customers at all
times and dont just call to ask for the order. Call to wish them happy
birthday, happy anniversary or happy holidays and ask if there is anything
I can do for you. These are simple things that help reinforce
relationships, and relationships are vital in sales because 75 percent of
all buying decisions are based on emotion. In plain English, if you dont
have a relationship with the customer, dont even think of getting the
business.
The Death Of The Sales Manager
Last but not least, one needs to address this great phenomenon, which
in many ways is sad, but its true, therefore, it must be stated. Not
long ago, I met with the Vice President of Sales of one of the largest
magazine printing companies, who was soliciting our business. During the
social conversation, he asked me, Do you promote from within? I
answered, Promotion from within is our middle name. In fact, I
stated, in 2000, nearly 70 percent of the employees at TMC were
promoted. He was very impressed and stated, Then I am sure you will
enjoy the following story.
A farmer who enjoyed duck hunting had a dog that was exceptionally
effective in hunting down the ducks that were shot down. The farmer,
looking at the dogs performance and personality, named the dog Salesman.
Pretty soon Salesmans reputation spread through the small town where
the farmer lived and the town leaders called the farmer and stated, We
understand that you have a great hunting dog and we would like to go out
duck hunting with you and your dog. And so they did. Of course,
Salesman impressed all of the town leaders that indeed he was extremely
hard working, very talented and very motivated in performing his duties.
At the end of the day, everyone was grateful to the farmer.
A week went by and the town leaders called the farmer again and asked
to go out duck hunting because the last time was a fantastic event and the
town leaders insisted that Salesman must come along. The farmer said, I
would be happy to go out hunting with you, except that I am sorry to tell
you I shot Salesman. People asked why. The farmer stated, Well, the
salesman did such a good job, I promoted him to sales manager and
thereafter, all he did was sit on his ass and bark all day and got nothing
done!
There is a strong message in this story, which I think is not far from
the truth in many cases. One of the most commonly made mistakes by
management is to take a top producing salesperson and promote him or her
to sales manager. The mistake becomes even more damaging if the
salesperson has been doing well in a good economy and then promoted. The
fact is, even if the salesperson was outstanding in selling during a bad
economy, that still does not mean that he or she would make a good
manager. As always, I welcome and encourage your valued e-mails and
comments.
Sincerely,
Nadji Tehrani
TMC Chairman, CEO and
Executive Group Publisher
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