Small Business Leadership and Sales Blog

Hello Marvelous People:

Let’s examine a recent selling dilemma that recently occurred with one of our students in our Sales Performance School.

Scenario: A hard working, excited salesperson has put a bunch of quotes/offers out in the marketplace since the beginning of the year.

Problem: While it is guaranteed that there can be no consistent, reliable results without “Activity” - “Activity” does not guarantee results, especially, if it’s the wrong activity.

Bigger Problem: if you are sincerely generating the right activities and you are not getting the desired result you want,(a sale) then your confidence will be destroyed.

No confidence = No fun. 

Possible Solutions:

“Now when you gave your prospect/client that quote/offer, was it over the phone or via email/fax?”

“When you shared your quote/offer, did you and the prospect/client agree to the next day/date you will see them or the next day & time you will call them?”

I mention this because so frequently, those new to the sales profession give up too early. And one of the reasons they are subjected to unnecessary rejection is because they don’t position themselves properly in the minds of the prospect from the very beginning.

I’m trying to help you avoid the emotional roller coaster one goes through when he/she really believes that a prospect/client is going to move forward with their quote/offer and the prospect/client was NEVER EVEN REMOTELY CLOSE to moving forward with the quote/offer.

Please understand - if someone is nice, respectful, courteous or amiable. That’s all it means. BUYING SIGNALS ARE SOMETHING entirely different. Don’t mistake the two. Know the difference.

Important Takeaways:

1. Maintain control of the dialog. Not because you are a control freak; but because your job is to deliver WORTHWHILE PRODUCTS/SERVICES to those that need them.

2. If you’re in an industry that allows you to see them face-to-face, then this appointment will yield more results than a phone appointment.

3. Don’t over talk "product"

4. Do talk in terms of the BENEFITS that your product/service will offer. Your clients only care about what’s in it for THEM! Would you please make it about them? It isn’t about you!!]

5. The more time passes, the faster they go from hot to lukewarm to cold.

6. Create the sense of urgency now or risk spending too much time making follow up calls to prospects that will never buy.

Your Homework:

Marvelous People, we need you to leave a comment on our feedback form or drop me your comments as Marvin@MarvinLeBlanc.com

What we are looking for are:
1. The actual things your prospects/clients say to you that indicate they are interested
2. The last 3 sales you made, what were the verbal or non-verbal buying signals you observed
3. Future topics that you would like to see us discuss

My future writings will include the cumulative insights of your comments and feedback.

The best gift is a referral!  If you or someone you know would like to know how to SELL smarter, work LESS and sell MORE please click here for more information on my coaching program. 

How can an entrepreneur lose his entire team, save one and rebound to the pinnacle of achievement among his peers?

Enduring the loss of an experienced team, finding jobs in other states for displaced employees to work, handling an emotionally distraught customer base – all while having no permanent office from August 2005 through June 2006. My team achieved the coveted Chairman’s Circle honor from the company I represent for two consecutive years following Katrina’s unwelcome visit.

How can you come back from that and make Chairman’s Circle in two years? That involved losing people, rebuilding, starting over, and moving 30 miles from our original office.

Very responsibly, the insurance company I represent had made a decision to restrict the amount of homeowner’s insurance we could offer. Essentially, they had said, “We talked to some weather forecasters and we believe that in the near future a Category 5 hurricane will hit and destroy New Orleans.”

At the time, all I could see was that they wanted to take my opportunity away. I thought they were making up this story about a Category 5 hurricane that would hit New Orleans. We hadn’t had a big hurricane hit New Orleans since Betsy in 1965.

I had begun slowly disengaging years before, but I reached my highest level of disengagement in 2004—a year before Katrina would attempt to drown our hopes and dreams. I was very bitter and thought I knew more than the company. I focused more on being a scratch golfer than on leading my team and being the example.

If you can relate, don't stop reading now! Do you realize you already have read the solution? That solution is recommitment. Now is the time for you to consider not only reading about it, but it’s time to start living the recommitment solution.

I read my goals for Chairman’s Circle several times every day. I had them taped to my credenza and thought about them all day, every day.

I enrolled my team in an Agency Development Program (ADP). It helped us to reengage, identify the building blocks, and to focus on being there for others and making a difference in their lives. ADP was about growth, finding common ground, reassessment, and self-evaluation.

I stumbled upon tandem appointments, which helped take us to the top. There were training benefits, multiline benefits, revenue benefits, and higher value benefits. I embraced Paper Days & People Days. My lunch hour was always intentional.

Entrepreneurs and small-business people are the most important people in my city (yours too, in case you haven’t thought about it). People look to you for leadership— economically and emotionally, whether it is verbalized or not. You are always being observed. Realize that others will model your behavior, especially if they perceive you as being in a position of power and influence. Therefore, be extremely protective of how you spend your time and who you spend it with. Live your life by appointment and schedule your appointments for your up- coming month first. Before all other appointments. Set appointments for yourself to be alone, to read, ponder and “be.”

Why did I become reengaged? Because I felt needed again. It became about the customers and not about me.

Please share your ideas about staying motivated, recommitting to your goals and becoming more successful.  Remember, I am always available for a free virtual cup of coffee to discuss your business!  I want you to be successful.

You can reach me anytime at marvin@marvinleblanc.com

Peace, Love and Gumbo, 

Marvin LeBlanc 

Welcome back Marvelous Performers!

Today I am honored to have Frank C. “Chip” Etier contribute his unique views and insights – “Come Hell or High Water”. Chip is a father, husband, photographer, high school football official, author and frequent contributor at the popular Examiner.com. Chip has “been there and done that” and reinvented himself several times. Enjoy his opinions here and make sure we hear YOURS. As always, we love your feedback. It’s the very essence of why blogging is so popular.

Peace, Love and Gumbo!
Marvin LeBlanc

During the mid to late seventies, I knew a man for whom I had a great deal of respect. He suffered a personal and business disaster when a close friend suddenly turned on him and the business eventually closed. In the depths of a quagmire that would be the undoing of many, he bounced back and within a month was busy building a new business with new partners.

"How did you manage such a timely and dramatic turnaround?" I asked him.

Roy Tauzin, who was at the time, my father-in-law (and is now deceased), said without hesitation, “The worst possible thing that could happen to you, might turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to you -- if you don’t let it get you down.” It didn't get him down, and I've never forgotten.

In 1984, a young man came to work for a sales company with me and made quite an impression.

Never had I met anyone with such a strong desire to succeed.

Never had I met anyone with such a focused obsession for persistence.

Come Hell or High Water is Marvin LeBlanc's book that tells his story of how hurricane Katrina might have been the worst possible thing that could happen for him, his family, and his career. It is also the story of how he refused to allow that to happen.

Never have I seen such a fine example of Mr. Tauzin's comment played out.

By mid 1988, Marvin and I had gone our separate ways and continued our careers. He was a rapidly rising star with State Farm Insurance in St. Bernard Parish, near New Orleans. His career was on the verge of a quantum leap into sales stardom when Katrina hit.

One of the traits that Marvin LeBlanc has, that makes him such a great salesman, is the ability to get his listeners to experience the same emotions he has had, while maintaining control of his own. His clients trust him. His team is loyal. Together, since Katrina, they have achieved the coveted Chairman's Circle twice at State Farm.

Readers will find LeBlanc's book to be not only emotional and informative, but inspirational as well. When bad things happen to you, you can overcome them as well. LeBlanc shows you how. Photographs by Joshua Lee accompany the text and depict scenes of the destruction as well as the reactions of the survivors.

Come Hell or High Water is available on this site, and from Amazon as a paperback or Kindle version.

Book review written by Chip Etier.  For more infomation about Chip please click here.