Weekly Quotes by Nick Handy

Again in keeping with all the crap we have to deal with on a daily basis, here is this weeks quote of the week from our freelance supporter Nick Handy.

SERVICE: Service is very important to every sales person in an organization. And more importantly, it's the people you bitch about when you're customers complain they didn't get their product. Suck up to Service cause if you don't; your screwed.

Weekly Quotes by Nick Handy

Every sales blog,sales magazine, and sales book usually contains famous quotes by some notable speaker on the subject. However this one doesn't. Because let's face it, we don't really utilize that crap out in the field. It's strictly for meetings and for motivation. It's something we tack on the end of our Power Point presentations to impress the boss or the customer. So we've decided to start our own Weekly Quotes. They might not seem as inspirational as some of the other quotes, but you might like them.

"Teamwork: Teamwork is when a group of people stops being a bunch of selfish bastards just long enough to get something done. That can be anything from completing a lunar landing to eating a pizza."

Smile for God's Sake

I don't know if any of you have heard of the theory of "Physical Reciprocity", but it is based on the concept that whatever type of facial expression or mood you convey to a person they have a tendency to reciprocate the same expression(s) or mood.

We experience this everyday. Waiting in line at the grocery store, or even getting a coffee. You see someone who is in a good mood smiling, laughing, and you think:

"I really like him/her! They seem really nice."

Of course this could be feigned behavior and the person might be a total asshole, but your perception of them is reality. And if you perceive them to be good then to you they are good. In addition if someone is not smiling, is just like a robot, and shows no emotion or expression, this can turn people off. You think:

"What a jerk! He didn't even look up when I was talking to him." Even though that person might be wonderful and just having a bad day. Again perception is reality.

In fact this happened to me just last week. I went with a coworker to get a coffee at Starbucks and the girl who waited on us was a very pretty young girl but she didn't smile once. She didn't act like a jerk, or wasn't rude, she just never smiled.

She simply said, "What can I get you?"

And then took our orders and didn't make the slightest effort to smile back when I smiled at her. She probably thought I was some disgusting older man. Who knows? But as soon as we got our coffee the person I was with said,

"Some one either hates their job or is a total bitch."

"Or they need their morning coffee.", I answered which got a chuckle.

" That person is depressing me, and she's bringing down the place.", was my partner's response. "I'd like to throw some hot coffee in her face. Maybe that would get a reaction."

It almost made you want to leave the coffee shop because the counter person was terribly blase with every customer. The two of us kept watching to see if her demeanor would change, and it didn't. We decided to stay a while to watch her interact with the other customers and check out their reactions.

As the customers approached she would say the same thing over and over:

"How can I help you?"

But the way she said it made it sound almost painful to her, as if she really meant:
"I'm way too cool for this job but I need it and I have take your stupid order, so what'll it be loser?"

Most of the people who ordered either had a negative reaction or they just ignored her sour puss. But the point was that this one person, the LEAD person in the shop, was bringing down the mood in the place. Killing the "Starbucks Vibe", which is why most people go to Starbucks and not to Coffee Bean. I had to leave and get my partner out of there before she strangled this person.

Armed with this information, I decided to try a few cold calls where I didn't smile when I greeted the person at the front desk,or the nurse at her station. It was just an experiment to monitor people's reaction to a different approach. Boy was that a bad idea! I didn't get excited, I didn't smile, but I wasn't rude. I was just there, as if I had to be there and didn't want to be there. However the reactions I got were not good from the gatekeepers:

"We don't want anything you're selling", or "Give me your information and I'll have them call you." Which means "As soon as you leave I'm throwing this crap in the garbage".

At times I recovered by smiling quickly thereafter, but it was a real struggle to get them back to looking favorably upon my visit.

I know it's silly and a very simple thing to do, but even if you're having a bad week, when you're in the field, always SMILE. It starts every call out in the right way -POSITIVE. Who knows, you'll probably get a smile in return, and maybe even a sale. Instead of an angry customer wanting to throw coffee in your face.

-Good Luck and Good Selling

M