You can look it up.
None of you went for my idea.
Bernie must have read that column and stole my idea just like he stole all that money from his fund’s investors.
Now, Bernie is saying he invented the idea in the late 1990’s and he’s getting all the credit and the hard time.
But first he ruled the world of finance with several multi-multi-million dollar homes, two yachts, an airplane, lots of jewelry and other great stuff as he plowed his way through more than $50.0 BILLION of other peoples’ money.
Now Bernie has ruined the idea for anyone else who needs an easy buck. Everyone will smell ponzi. I guess I will have to try a Nigerian email scam.
I can’t get credit for any of the great stuff that I do. Attila the Nun, my spouse of nearly 47 years, pours ice water on my ego whenever she thinks my head is growing bigger.
This reminds me of Will Rogers who said, “There are two theories to arguing with a woman... neither works”. He should have said the same is true of customers. Customers are to be honored, respected and heard not ignored, debated or dishonored.
Will Rogers and Mark Twain dispensed more wisdom than you can get from a Harvard degree. In fact, Harvard, Yale, Stanford and the University of Chicago MBA programs would do a great service to their students by adding courses titled Management Behavior – Twain and Rogers 501 and 502.
If the bank and automaker CEOs had taken these courses, then their arrogance and greed would not have happened.
I’m gonna look at some more Rogers and Twain.
Here’s some great sales advice from Will Rogers who said, “Never miss a good chance to shut up”. This, of course, relates to two vitally important sales maxims that I still see violated. The first is to ask for the order and then shut up. It works every time. If you speak before the customer responds, you are almost always doomed.
Next, Will Rogers reminds us that successful salespeople speak 20% of the time allowing the customer or prospect the remaining 80%. Salespeople should leave every call recapping the call (phone or face-to-face) assessing sales performance and the 80/20 time equation. You have to be brutally honest for this practice to help you grow. Most of us deceive ourselves.
Now, let’s listen to Mark Twain who said, “Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.”
This means you could spend just one hour prospecting for new business. Or, you could research lost accounts and spend one hour trying to resurrect these customers. The real challenge is to call former customers who left your company due to some monumental complaint. Or, spend one hour calling customers who haven’t printed with you for the past six months. The average print communications salesperson in the U.S. prospects less than eight hours each month. This accounts for the fact that twenty percent of the salespeople tally eighty percent of the sales.
Then Mark Twain had another bolt of genius and said, “Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” This attitude is an illness that pervades the sales offices of America’s printing companies. They are salespeople who waste 75% of the day complaining about the company, their customers, the plant personnel, their spouse, their bills, the weather, etc. Massive energy is consumed by salespeople who dedicate themselves to whining instead of selling.
Whining is not productive. It never results in any improvement in the plant performance, customer performance or the weather.
Here are some more examples of Will Rogers’ wisdom.
“Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.”
And, your Maňana Man say’s never pester a customer or a prospect with inane uninspired voice or electric mails. You are supposed to be a salesperson, so employ some creativity with your customer communications in both content and methodology. For starters ask customer and prospects how often they want you to communicate.
Bet you thought I couldn’t relate that Rogersism to sales?
Here’s another one. “Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.” For that matter, never kick a cow chip on a rainy day or a winter day. You could break a foot or bust your sternum. The sales message here is to avoid calling Friday afternoons during the summer. Or, don’t call on Friday’s before holidays. Don’t call on the day before your client goes on vacation or on their first day back. By the way, you should always know when they are taking vacation. If they have a job in the house, it is okay to call with a status report and to ask for special instructions in their absence.
“Always drink upstream from the herd.” This applies to your unworthy sleazeball competitors. You must differentiate yourselves with superior technical knowledge, superior responsiveness, superior listening skills, superior knowledge of your customers’ companies, etc.
“If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” If you are suffering from a sales slump, then change your entire Modus Operandi (MO). Marvelle Stump, oh you world’s worst print salesperson down there in Hot Coffee, Mississippi, Modus Operandi means “how you do your job” or “how you prospect and how you sell.” Marvelle, this will be very hard for you because it involves change. Ask some of your buddies at the Rebel Yell Tavern what you should do different. I know they have some ideas.
Here are three more Will Rogersisms. I’m out of space so I’m going to challenge you readers to send me a letter (that’s a piece of paper with writing on it), or an email, or a voice mail, or a fax and tell me how any one of these quotes relates to sales. The best five ideas will be published with your photo in the August issue of the magazine. I will try to persuade Attila the Editor to give something good to the five winners. Here are three more quotes to choose from.
“There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.”
“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”
“If you're riding' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.”
Next month, June, I will be giving you my Maňana Man’s Stimulus Package. It won’t include any bail out money since I’m tapped out. It will include a lot of “Stimulating” programs you can use to improve your company and personal prosperity.
Meanwhile, stimulate your sales and “Get Out There and Sell Something”.
Oh, I almost forgot. I do have a money making scheme. Remember how I criticized blogs in my April column. Well now I have one so visit me at hubpages.com/author/Manana+Man/hot/. It’s intended to be a productive respite for lonely and tired salespeople. If I have a lot of visitors, they pay me a couple of bucks.
