Patricia Wentworth was an early 20th Century crime novelist, often compared with Agatha Christie who said this over half a century before the advent of the mobile phone and social media.

‘Too much information can be as disconcerting as too little’

It’s affecting our attitudes to business, client relationships and the activity and execution of our skills required to win deals.

Neanderthals are everywhere – sometimes in politics, often leading companies, on the sales floor, and thankfully, they’re now being carted off to court for harassment, abuse and assault.

Two decades ago, when #metoo was just a five year old screaming he wanted an ice cream, I reported a man of power who was clearly and horribly harassing women.

I was told to back off, of course, offered money, presumably to be quiet and told my career would be affected.

My career was affected. I left. But not until I created a shit –storm, and more importantly he had to go and he lost his status in the industry.

The right thing was done. The women involved moved on and I moved on, successfully and that is the key point here.

Do we move on as easily as we should or do we agonise, click on more bad news and cause ourselves harm?

Retail has lost Bardot, JeansWest, Harris Scarfe, Bose, McWilliams Wines and the list goes on.

Whilst there are many factors, including cost management and rents, I’ve always maintained that poor sales acumen and insufficient differentiation are key reasons.

In the corporate world, there are also still far too many companies that look at me like I’m an alien when I confront them with the question ‘Park your passion, why are you clearly and unequivocally different in the eyes of the client?’

Yet, there will be more companies and retailers who will not move on, or listen to the client and change rapidly. They’ll be tomorrow’s headlines and the holiday house suppliers to partners in insolvency firms.

Then, someone ate a bat apparently.

The coronavirus is creating havoc in business including my schedule, but it will pass. Orders may be delayed. Cash flow may be hit in the short term but China will recover and it will not be cut off from the world forever in a dungeon.

There are still clients to see and deals to be done. The wheels will turn.

Unless those wheels belong to a Holden who is bidding us farewell after 160 years.

Why? We didn’t buy what they were selling any more. There’s that pesky sales story again with the words ‘Liiiissttten, Liiisten’ being whispered into the universe like a ghost with laryngitis.

There are plenty of reasons to stay in bed, sit behind your screen and avoid activity. Just scroll down on your phone and you’ll find more stuff to put you in a bad or anxious mood.

There are plenty of reasons why you should just avoid the hard discussion on Differentiation, but none of them will ultimately work.

There are plenty of reasons to get out there, make the calls, listen to the client and differentiate yourself and not get hung up either on the result or the noise that surrounds you.

Please. Move On. It’s so much more fun.

(This article was written in a Holden Caprice – I bought one)

(With apologies to ‘Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos and Holden Cars’)

Join me in my annual Ultimate Sales Influence Program, May 13 in Melbourne

Click here: https://www.salientcommunication.com.au/ultimate-sales-influence-may-13-2020

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate Sales, Negotiation and Presentation trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Asciano, Samsung and Lend Lease

He is the author of # 1 International Best Seller ‘ Confessions of a Pitch Consultant‘ and Sales Vs Procurement – The Secrets Unveiled at the Negotiation Table and is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two negotiators.

September 12 is R U OK Day where we’re all encouraged to observe, listen and help people who might be struggling with life.

The very nature of Sales is filled with roller-coaster results, anxiety around performance, stress and uncertainty.

I preface the following thoughts with the disclosure that the closest I’ve ever come to being a medical professional is visiting a podiatrist once and buying a large pack of Band-Aids from the supermarket.

However, I have coached over 5,000 sales people in my time and there are some key ideas worth sharing so we can all look after each other a little better.

1. You are not your number. Whether you had a great year or a disappointing one, you are a wife, husband, brother, colleague, parent and probably a half decent person on days ending in a Y. Don’t let the target define who you are, either way. You’re not superior because you hit 100%, nor are you a lesser individual if you didn’t.

2. Be wary of seeking validation from clients. Many clients are great people and some are arseholes you never want to see again. Either way, they are most often not your best buddies despite the rapport you might’ve built. They have their own agendas – job security, ambition, bonuses and status to name a few. None of this is about you. Seeking validation from clients for you as a person may lead you to a huge rollercoaster of highs and lows depending on their moods, prejudices and biases.

3. Your company is not your Mum or Dad. Many companies invest positively and heavily in their people, which is great. They may pay well or provide great opportunities, but please don’t mistake this for love. One new CEO, merger or restructure can flip everything on its head. There is a trend towards selling the company as a ‘family’ or even purporting to love its people, which sounds more like a cult, because it’s simply not true. Good companies deserve our utmost respect and commitment. But be careful to not over-invest or confer your love on them – that’s reserved for your family, friends and dog.

4. The 110% Expectation Factor. Read emails at midnight, skip breakfast and the gym, miss your kid’s school play, jump on a plane to Singapore, go straight to a meeting, fly straight back, go to another three meetings, re-write the corporate presentation on the plane, and then run a national sales training program for 120 people before going home to crash three months later. Is that really the expectation, the balance and the life you want? Nobody has their title on their gravestone. Besides you can outsource the sales training to me. (see Cheap Plug).

5. Sales is a Win/Loss business and always will be. We can still improve without being ridiculously self-critical and we can all continue to grow without falling victim to hubris.

Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem ‘If’ includes:

‘If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same

…Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.’

Sales is a wonderful profession with many great rewards, but I’m just asking:

R U OK?

Please share this article.

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate Sales, Negotiation and Presentation trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Asciano, Samsung and Lend Lease

He is the author of # 1 International Best Seller ‘ Confessions of a Pitch Consultant‘ and Sales Vs Procurement – The Secrets Unveiled at the Negotiation Table and is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two negotiators.

He is OK. Thanks for asking.

The two blondy tumbleweeds of weird hair, Pres. Donald J Trump and newly installed UK PM Boris Johnson are renowned for mistruths, dubious facts and that other thing – downright lying.

There are enough fact checkers out there to highlight this. They’re also the same people who tell you that you have a big zit on your chin, spinach in your teeth and bad breath.

Despite the facts, many people vote for the dynamic duo of FibMan and RobYou (of the truth)

If we supposedly abhor being lied to, why do these fine exponents of the fib seem to thrive and what does it mean for our client engagements?

One of the key psychological paradoxes of buyer behaviour is that beneath the risk aversion, the analysis and the caution, we desperately want to Believe.

Buyers are keen on acquiring that new piece of shiny software, new equipment, new handbag or new car because it’s attractive to them and they project all manner of wonders will occur if they have it.

It’s a form of sexual attraction and don’t tell me you haven’t forgiven a few fibs because s/he was hot, at some point in your life.

Executive level selling is obviously different because there is a contract filled with deliverables BUT…your clients want to believe too.

There is never a place for lying in professional selling. Period.

Aside from the integrity issue, the sales profession has spent years shaking off snake oil, vaporware behaviour in order to create trusted advisors. As it should. And there is more work to do.

However, do we douse the buyer’s passion with unnecessary, anxiety laden comments which destroy the inner tingle of excitement they feel about your shiny, new widget?

Comments like:

‘Look, we can’t guarantee that in 6 months’ time the figures will be exactly the same, because it depends on usage blah, blah, blah. (Client thinks: Does your solution deliver results or not?)

‘We sort of do it, in a different way, and we may have an update due in September next year, especially if we partner with a US company that seems to do a lot of this. (Client thinks: So you don’t do it then)

‘We could potentially meet that timeframe if we subcontracted a part of it to supplement our existing staff’ (Client hears: “Whoosh – the sound of a deadline whizzing by at the speed of light)

The client wants more definitive answers – remember, they want to believe in you.

So, if your widget literally can’t handle A3 or the software isn’t compatible with their CRM, tell the truth, don’t skirt around it or fib – just say ‘No, it doesn’t’ and explore how important that feature set is.

Equally, just say yes to the things that you can do, even if it requires a bit of a re-jig of how you would normally do it. Clients don’t want to know all your backroom dramas.

They just want a result and something that works and they want to believe you can do it.

So, there’s no need to go to the fancy dress shop, buy blonde wigs and start stretching the truth.

You could however get a Pirates of the Caribbean outfit and in your best Jack Sparrow voice shout:

‘The problem is not the problem, the problem is your attitude to the problem’

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate Sales, Negotiation and Presentation trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Asciano, Samsung and Lend Lease

He is the author of # 1 International Best Seller ‘ Confessions of a Pitch Consultant‘ and Sales Vs Procurement – The Secrets Unveiled at the Negotiation Table and is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two negotiators.

Millions have been watching a reality show sweeping the nation involving people openly displaying their weird and wonderful behaviour. It’s called the Sales | Client hook-up.

They are supposed to meet very briefly to determine if they are a match for each other and the anxiety is palpable, giving way to a string of insecure behaviours.

Some sales people come on too strong, lack empathy and basically won’t shut up due to their fear of rejection.

Some clients, having experienced some previous relationships that were absolute shockers, are deeply worried that this new, seemingly attractive mate might turn out to be just another crap artist.

The sales person is equally concerned that the Client, weighed down by emotional baggage, will either not move from their past love or will prove to be unfaithful.

They’re also worried that they will only be used for sex, to make the Client’s current lover jealous and pay more attention to them with no real hope of them ever leaving.

Clients use words like Partnership, Reliability and Tender, but sales people often feel there’s nothing tender in their liaisons at all. In fact, it often feels brutal.

So these two people, thrown together by chance or a LinkedIn connection, try desperately to join as one, seeking harmony, togetherness and a three year contract.

Inevitably, breakdowns occur very quickly. Sales discover Clients have been in the spa with multiple would-be suitors and feel aggrieved. Clients feel that Sales don’t really ‘get what turns me on’ and are very easily irritated by the smallest of faux pas.

Are they always made for each other? Often not.

Do they yearn though, for a connection deeper than that of an upper lip and Botox?

Absolutely.

Stay tuned for the next episode when I share the loving story of the Errals, one of the happy couples who have just given birth to their first child: Riff Erral.

He’s such an easy child.

Last few places available in my Ultimate Sales Influence Program, May 21.

Click here: https://www.salientcommunication.com.au/event/ultimate-sales-influence-with-elliot-epstein/

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate Sales, Negotiation and Presentation trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Asciano, Samsung and Lend Lease

He is the author of # 1 International Best Seller ‘ Confessions of a Pitch Consultant‘ and Sales Vs Procurement – The Secrets Unveiled at the Negotiation Table and is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two negotiators.