Track Selling Times: The Voice of the Sales Profession

Track Selling Times - March, 1999

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Track Selling Times
The Voice of the Sales Profession
Issue No. 112
March 1, 1999
Published by Max Sacks International,
Home of 100% Guaranteed World Class Sales Training, and
Developers of the Track Selling System™.
Author/Editor: Roy Chitwood, President, MSI
Archives of this letter are available at
http://www.maxsacks.com/newsletter.html

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In this issue:
Feature:

"Sales Certification: What it Means and How to Obtain it"

Sections:

"Resolving Billing Disputes"

"Creating a Corporate Sales Culture, by Danelle Gonzalez"

Focus on the Professional: Ken McCrocklin
Ask Roy
Survey Newsletter Archives

"Sales Certification:
What it Means and How to Obtain it"
by Roy E. Chitwood, CSP, CSE

Verifying the credentials of lawyers, accountants, dentists or doctors is a simple matter. Walk into their office and check out the diploma on the wall. If suspicions linger, place a call to the awarding body to validate the individual's qualifications. It is a different matter, though, when it comes to salespeople. At least it was until recently.

Now, under the auspices of the International Standards Organization (ISO), Certified Marketing Services, Inc. (CMSI) of Sterling, VA sets sales certification standards, with only training of the highest caliber qualifying for the program.
So what does this mean to you?

Consumer confidence:

Once the public becomes aware of what a sales professional certificate represents, they will begin to insist on doing business only with certified individuals. Why? As the standard includes a code of sales ethics, you are in effect offering customers a service guarantee and a complaint mechanism.

Improved image:

For many years, honest salespeople have labored under the tarnished image wrought by shady dealers and smooth-talking con artists. Certification gives recognition to those of you who are doing a fine job for both your company and your customers, leaving the rest to find alternative means of employment.

Personal integrity:

The code provides a valuable weapon in addressing matters of personal sales integrity. Nagging doubts about the ethics of a particular sale are resolved, and the sales professional has a clear cut understanding of what is considered right and wrong in sales conduct.

Continuing education:

I've seen many successful people rest on their laurels, finally losing pace with progress and falling by the wayside. With certification, however, continuing education is regulated, and all salespeople who wish to maintain their status must engage in some form of betterment training annually.

How do you become certified in sales?

1. Have at least five years of sales experience (a college degree reduces this requirement to three years).
2. Have a high school diploma.
3. Get five customers willing to attest to long-term service satisfaction.
4. Provide professional references from friends and associates.
5. Demonstrate a satisfactory performance appraisal from current sales manager or supervisor.
6. Attend a three-day (24 hour) training program approved by CMSI. Max Sacks International is one of only six companies in the world that are authorized by CMSI to offer accredited professional sales training as part of the certification program.
7. Earn a passing grade in the CMSI exam.
8. Submit a signed CMSI Code of Ethics document.

While these qualification conditions are thorough, they are rapidly attainable by any good salesperson and can be achieved within a few years by the newcomer. Once earned, however, there is a further benefit of sales certification that ranks higher than all the rest - survival.

With the ongoing weeding-out process that is currently sweeping through the sales world, only those who truly attain a level of sales professionalism will make it. Accordingly, the best way to ensure your own survival is to become a certified sales professional.

Integrity Pays:
"Resolving Billing Disputes "

Terry Roberts is Director of Strategic Consulting at Fine.com, a Seattle-based high-end Web development firm. He relates this story from his days as a principal in an advertising agency.

"We learned early on that invoicing was very important in client relations. If your invoices contain errors or oversights, it raises questions about everything else you do. By being honest and detailed in your invoicing, you set a positive tone for a business relationship."

"But sometimes good billing procedures aren't enough. We ran into an invoicing situation on a real estate development project. For that job, we worked through our client's marketing manager, using him as the approval point for everything we did. Unfortunately, when it came time to bill, he'd left the company."

What happened?

"We detailed all our work and laid it out plainly for the owners. However, they indicated they'd been unhappy with their former marketing manager's decisions and didn't feel they should pay us the full amount. At this point we were faced with either sticking to our guns and losing a client or somehow resolving a difficult issue."

How exactly did you handle it?

"It turned out their real issue was that they didn't get the turnout they'd expected at an open house we'd set up. Although we'd performed everything in good faith and were due full payment, it didn't seem that making them angry was the right course."

"Not only might we lose their business, they might also start complaining to others about us, and who wants that? So I asked point blank what they wanted to be fully satisfied. When we found out that a 10 percent fee cut was enough, we settled the dispute, and they went on to order another project from us."

Terry Roberts can be contacted at: Terryr@fine.com

World Class Sales Management:
" Creating a Corporate Sales Culture "

By Danelle Gonzalez
Director of Sales and Conservation Services, Puget Sound Energy

I work for the largest gas and electric utility in the Pacific Northwest and have 31 account managers who report to me. As well as spending time with my sales managers and salespeople, I put a lot of effort into improving the sales culture within the company. Although this applies to any firm, it is particularly important in the utility industry due to the implications of deregulation.

Utilities have evolved with a captive audience for their product. As a consequence, there is often a lack of sales orientation. Instead of selling their wares, they are more accustomed to telling customers how it is. Therefore, I see it as a vital part of my job to do what I can to create more of a sales culture, and that's where Track Selling comes in.

As well as proving invaluable training in directing my sales staff, Track Selling has been of great benefit in dealing with company management. For example, a few months ago I needed approval for a program to add people for sales canvassing. Right away, I ran into major budgetary reasons why it couldn't be done. Without Track Selling I wouldn't have been able to overcome those objections. Instead I persisted, applied the seven steps and gained additional resources.

I've used Max Sacks techniques in many others situations, too. Occasionally, we have conferences to plan upcoming discussions with civic officials. Despite an initially cool reception from some of our veteran corporate relations people, I gave a talk on preparing for meetings, using the steps of Track Selling as a guide. Afterwards, several of our most seasoned professionals reported they found it beneficial.

As developing a sales culture is not an overnight process, I find it helpful to identify what I can do each day to set an example or influence that change. Whenever I take part in a decision-making session, for instance, I always ask, 'What would we do if the customer could leave us today?'

After using this for many months, the others in the committee are starting to joke about it and now ask themselves this question. They are beginning to realize the only way to address deregulation is in a proactive manner.

Danelle Gonzales can be contacted at: dgonza@puget.com

Focus on the Professional - Ken McCrocklin

Ken McCrocklin is president and owner of Alpha Omega Consulting of Thousands Oaks CA, a marketing and sales company specializing in finding business for companies that do not have a sales force. Alpha Omega focuses on software and consulting companies with a lengthy sales cycle ranging anywhere from $2 million to $60 million. Ken has 25 years of sales experience.

"Let me tell you how I used to sell before Track Selling. I'd sit down and let people tell me a little of what they wanted. Within minutes, I assumed I knew what their needs were and proceeded to do all the talking. Surprisingly, I had some success, though as often as not I'd run into problems."

What changed when you completed Track Selling?

"Nowadays I might spend one full day or several visits fully understanding the exact needs of the client. Here's how I work:

I send a letter to someone I don't know, and a week later I call up for an appointment. My first aim is to get to know the prospect as a person, so it usually takes two or three visits to really accomplish this and achieve a firm grasp of the business they're in. By this point, the only thing I've sold is myself. Once that is accomplished, I do a presentation based on what they've told me. My closing ratio is 80-85 percent."

How do you get high-level executives to agree to spend time with you?

"For me, sales is part science and part art. Track Selling lays out the exact mechanics of the sales process, and you really can't function without it. Within that framework, however, there is tremendous room for flare and individuality. Let me give you an example. Say your target executive is receiving 30,000 letters a year. To make mine stand out, I might enclose a book on leadership and use it to secure a few minutes with the prospect. Usually, 15 minutes turns into one hour, and before I leave, I find a reason to come back"

How about people who brush you off?

"Someone once brushed me off seven times over the phone, so I sent him an expensive brass door knocker, engraved with his name along with a note saying, 'As I'm knocking on your door, how about you listen to what I've got to say.'"

"But even with all the flare in the world, if you don't know Track Selling, you'll run aground. My advice to newcomers and seasoned professionals alike would be to take a Max Sacks workshop and then work hard at becoming expert in its application."

Ken McCrocklin can be contacted at: KMcCrockli@aol.com

Ask Roy

Jon Anderson from Tulsa, OK asks,

" My boss makes me attend inspirational seminars to motivate me as a salesman. At the time, they seem great and for the next few days I must admit I do have more drive. But as soon as I run in to the recurring closing situations I find hard to deal with, like prospects wanting to think it over or shop around, I lose my enthusiasm and settle into the daily grind. It's got to the point that I don't even want to go to the next seminar as I find the come-down so depressing. Got any suggestions? "

Roy's Answer:

I'd suggest a three-day Track Selling seminar to learn the science of selling (A detailed description of the workshop is available at http://www.maxsacks.com/traksell.html). Once you've learned the methodology, you probably won't even need the motivational workshops. Instead, you'll have a lasting kind of motivation that comes from within. "

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