January 2007
BUSINESS OF WEARABLES: Start the New Year Off Right
By Nowell C. Wisch, MAS
By Tim Vack
I was visiting a Midwestern city on business and ran into Pat at a membership warehouse store. It was completely unexpected and might have been an enjoyable experience had it not been for Pat’s basic nature, which can be described as sour. Don’t get me wrong – I like Pat. We’ve made some end-user calls together, but he’s just not a happy guy and it shows in his presentation.
Our conversation skirted everything that might bring out the worst in him until he brought up the subject of New Year’s resolutions. I asked him what he was planning to work on in 2007, and he let loose a litany of items on his “Things for Me to Do” list, from “make more calls” to “return unused samples.”
I resolve …
Resolutions are convenient and excellent things to consider at the end of the year. The new year is a wonderful starting point for real change, and sales behavior is a great place to focus on when making a list. Unfortunately, we can’t really effect change in our behavior unless we work at it. Making more than three or four resolutions for change is simply too much for the average person to handle.
"The new year is a wonderful starting point for real change, and sales behavior is a great place to focus on when making a list. Unfortunately, we can’t really effect change in our behavior unless we work at it. "
I know this because I’m king of the land of good intentions. I begin every new year with the obligatory list of things that I absolutely will change about myself. In May, when I review my progress, I try to conveniently “lose” the list so I don’t have to face the truth, which is that I haven’t paid attention to most of the items on it. I make a list because I think I “should,” not because I want to effect real change in my life. In fact, I feel that if I don’t make a list, then I’m a slacker.
When I had a chance to ask a behavioral psychologist why this is true for many people she said, “It’s just human nature. That’s the way most people are.” Then she recommended that I take my list and start to whittle it down to one, two or, at most, three resolutions that I truly plan to work on for the year. Three items seems to be the maximum amount of resolutions that I can imagine holding in my head and still trying to sell a few shirts or ties to earn a living.
In stark contrast to Pat, my friend Barbara has taken resolution-making to a high art. She has only one for the new year. “I’ve resolved to make more local calls,” she says. “When customers and multi-line reps call, they say that they always can count on finding me in the office.
“I’m starting to think this isn’t such a good thing. My clients are mostly out of town, and we speak on the phone and do business by e-mail. I seldom see customers face to face, and I want to do more of that.”
Barbara’s resolution is upheld by some of sales’ core principles. Customer contact equates to
relationship-building, and relationship-building is the key to our livelihood.
Years ago, I watched a TV commercial for an airline. The boss is speaking to a group of people sitting in a conference room, which had a casual, industrial appearance. He says, “We lost the ZammaZamma account today because they said we took them for granted. Starting tomorrow we’re going to visit all of our good accounts and get to know them better.” Then he starts handing out plane tickets to everyone in the room.
It was a great commercial, and at the time, it reminded me of the core of our business, which is relationships.
Count to three
When Pat hit me with his list, I tuned out and stopped listening. His range of resolutions was simply too broad a landscape for me to travel on in one trip. While a few of his resolutions hit my hot buttons, none were specific enough to my goals as to make my resolution list.
Instead, I concentrated on trying to identify goals that I could achieve and would create positive change in my behavior and my income. I wrote more than 20 on the master list but reduced it to a manageable three. My 2007
New Year’s sales resolutions are:
- Follow up. I resolve to do a better job of following up after shows and sales calls. I’ve been notoriously lax in my attention to detail, and it’s not a good thing. My customers and prospects suffer because of it and, if I profess to want to help them achieve their goals, then I must give them the tools to accomplish the task. Every salesperson is taught the value of following up on leads and opportunities, and if I do nothing else this year, this will pay off for me.
- Follow through. I resolve to be more diligent in my follow-through on ideas and creative pursuits. If my clients hope to have new things to show their customers, then I need to give them new ideas on a regular basis.
- Don’t worry; be happy. I resolve to have fewer negative thoughts and fewer melancholy days. If I’m to help my clients develop a better attitude about selling, I should have a better attitude toward selling. I need to do a better job of excising cynicism, sarcasm and melancholy from my life and attitude.
These small steps should lead to giant leaps in peace of mind, activity, productivity and financial solvency. If they only pay off to a small extent, that’ll be enough.
In contrast to my three goals, Barbara’s may pay off even more since gaining one more customer to see at lunch might net her hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales. And that will certainly be a great
way to celebrate the new year.
Happy selling!
