The Prospecting Professor

Frank Lloyd Wright

Today, June 8th, is the birth anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright, America's most significant architect.

Although a trained engineer, he was a self-taught architect. Actually, he absorbed much of the teachings of his mother...who had decided, when he was a very tender age, that Wright should become an architect. It is said that Anna Lloyd-Jones placed pictures of great buildings in his nursery...in order to 'imprint' young Frank with an architectural mindset.

Wright's "Prairie Style" transformed 20th-century residential design...and was committed to 'organic architecture,' the belief that structures should harmonize with both occupants and landscape.

In 1956, at the age of 89, Wright completed a sketch for 'The Illinois,'...a mile-high skyscraper. The building would stand 528 stories tall, and contain 100,000 people. He felt that the structure could be built with available technology.

Speaking of architects, the Architectural Billings Index (ABI), a leading economic indicator of nonresidential construction activity, was positive again in April. The ABI has been positive for 19 consecutive months and 28 out of the last 29 months. The American Institute of Architects reported that the ABI rating in April was 54.2...any score above 50 indicates an increase.

The trend in billings at U.S. architecture firms points towards 2006 as being the best year for nonresidential construction since 1999.

From an investment perspective, Global Real Analytics LLC has reported that commercial real estate total returns outpaced the stock market by over 50% during the past decade...and were up 34% in the U.S. in 2005.

Frank Lloyd Wright quotes:

"A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines."

"A man is a fool if he drinks before he reaches fifty, and a fool if he doesn't drink afterward."

Demography 101

In Guy Kawasaki's always entertaining and informative blog, "Let the Good Times Roll," he has a very good interview with demographer, Dr. Joseph Chamie. Dr. Chamie is a demography expert, and past director of the United Nations' Populations Division.

The full interview is here...yet here are some of Dr. Chamie's more salient observations:

• The US population will hit 300 million sometime in October of this year...and by 2050 is likely to reach 420 million.
• By 2050, 21% of US population will be over 65...compared to 12% today.
• Fastest growing states: Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Texas, and Utah.
• Since the US population will grow by over 100 million over the next 4 decades, Dr. Chamie would look for entrepreneurial opportunities and growth in: housing, and consumer goods and services.
• Given the aging, as well as the growing immigrant population, businesses to avoid would be: those businesses and products that are complicated to understand, hard or uncomfortable to use, expensive, difficult to store, or non-essential.

Great interview. I encourage you to read the whole thing.

That's all for today. Ciao!

Ice Breaker

There is good ice-breaking...and bad ice-breaking.

Bad ice-breaking.

Average temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the world. Arctic ice is getting thinner, melting and rupturing. For example, the largest single block of ice in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, had been around for 3,000 years before it started cracking in 2000. Within two years it had split all the way through and is now breaking into pieces.

Good ice-breaking

Have you ever been in a social situation, conversation with a client, or a sales cold call...where the the social interaction and exchange of words...is completely rote and devoid of emotion or meaning? "Hi...Howsitgoing?...Hotenoughforyou?...Nice!...Seeyouaround"

This is  even smaller than smalltalk...it's minuscule talk, and a guaranteed way to NOT build rapport. How to get around this? Here are some tips for conversation starters from an article by Michael E. Rega, in the June 2006 issue of The American Salesman.

1. Shared hobby or interest. This may seem obvious,  yet the key is to find a shared hobby or interest. For example, I hate golf. For me, golf is not a shared interest with anyone. Therefore, to ask someone "How you hittin' them?" is a shallow attempt on my part.
2. Deserved compliment. A sincere, deserved compliment is always well-received...and can go a long way in getting attention.
3. Common background. Common acquaintances or history are one of the easiest ways  to get things going. For example, I'm a native San Franciscan...although I have since moved away from The City. Whenever I mention that I'm from San Francisco, a conversation will follow...guaranteed.
4. Astute general comment. This might be a comment about current events, or something that you just saw in the lobby, or something different entirely. However, the central purpose is to communicate on a conscious level (viz-a-viz subconscious), and pique the other person's interest so the focus is on your astute powers of observation.

Above all else, these rapport-building techniques must be natural, and suit your own voice and personality. Building rapport can often be a delicate balance. On the one hand, you want to go beyond the superficial...yet you don't want to be blatantly smarmy either.

Use these ice-breaking tips to find the right balance.

My First Sales Job

My first sales job was selling ollalieberries at the Farmers Market on Alemany Blvd., in San Francisco.

Although I grew up in San Francisco, my grandmother had a ranch in Watsonville, CA...110 miles south of the city. Picturesquely nestled against the coast range, and within site of Mt. Madonna, it was a pretty modest operation. We grew ollalieberries...which are a cross between a Logan and a Young. They are a hardy berry...tart and sweet...a perfect black berry for pies and cobblers.

The ollalieberry season is short...they ripen in June, and are pretty much done by July. During the weekends in June, our family had a stand at the Alemany Farmers Market in The City. (Today, there are two farmers markets in SF...the newer, trendy, and very spendy market is on the Embarcadero, by the Ferry Building. In my youth, there was only ONE farmers market.)

On the Fridays in June, my mother and four younger brothers and I would arise at the crack of dawn, and hit the berry fields...and begin picking the berries that we would sell at the Market on the following day. Fruit-picking can be a numbingly mindless activity...the only ancillary benefit is that you can pop a berry in your mouth when you're hungry. By 3 or 4 in the afternoon, our picking was done...and we loaded the crates into our Chevy Carryall for the two-hour drive up the Coast Highway to the city.

On Saturday morning, we'd get into the truck (which by now had this amazingly concentrated berry smell)...and drive out to our stall at the market. We set out the berry crates...and away we went. The regulars...who would wait all year for the ollalie season...would swoop in and load up on the amount needed for their jams and pies. The neophytes needed more guidance...you needed to give them the "Ollalieberry Elevator Speech,"...the history, background, uses, etc. By this point, the 'free samples' closed the deal...although the tartness of the ollalie was a surprise to those who were anticipating the sweetness of the blackberry.

Initially, I wasn't a very good 'ollalieberry salesmen.' I was shy, and the smalltalk was a challenge. Soon, when I realized how convivial the whole atmosphere was, I developed my rudimentary selling skills. In retrospect, it was a perfect way to learn how to 'sell.'

Today, Watsonville and the entire Pajaro Valley, is surprisingly unchanged from days of my berry-picking youth. Watsonville remains the Berry Capital of the country...most strawberries and blackberries that you find in your grocery store, will show a Watsonville address.

However, development and growth pressures are fast encroaching. The monied interests from the other side of the mountains are looking longingly at this fertile California idyll. It would be a shame if this area was too soon...stripped and mauled.

Your Style is Your 'Voice'

Today is the birth anniversary of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the essayist and philosopher.

Emerson once said, "A person's style is a person's mind's voice." Although Emerson was probably not thinking in these terms, his words could apply to the sales profession...and the power of making a positive first impression. Research indicates that we form 'first impressions' within 5-7 seconds of meeting someone for the first time...and it can often take as many as 20 additional interactions to alter whatever that 'first impression' was.

Emerson was also one of the first Americans to make a living from the lecture circuit. In the nineteenth century, public lectures were increasingly common. Emerson used lecturing a one of his main sources of income for him and his family. He oversaw the advertising and ticket sales. Tickets, $2 for twelve lectures, could be purchased at Boston bookstores.

Emerson was a great public speaker. He  had begun his career as a Unitarian minister, and enjoyed giving sermons. His lectures drew 300-400 attendees, and he often scheduled 3-4 lectures weekly. Soon, his reputation grew and he was traveling as far west as St. Louis, and also to England and France. By the end of his life, he had become a celebrity in America and Europe and was making $100 per lecture.

By the way, last year Donald Trump was paid a cool $1,000,000 for his lecture, "How to Succeed in Real Estate." Somewhere, Ralph Waldo Emerson is smiling...with irony.

CEO Humor

Scott McNealy is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Three weeks ago, he relinquished the CEO title to Jonathan Schwartz, his ponytail-wearing colleague. This past week, at JavaOne, the world's largest software developers conference also sponsored by Sun, McNealy gave the keynote speech.

A la Dave Letterman, McNealy listed the Top Ten advantages of NOT being a CEO.

10. “I don’t have to apologize for stuff I say to Wall Street.”

9.  “I’m no longer on the most overpaid CEO list.”

8. “I just say, ‘See Jonathan on that.’”

7. “I read The Hockey News without guilt.”

6. “I shave even less often.”

5. “I don’t have to sign the SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) certification anymore.”

4. “I have someone to blame now.”

3. “I can sell my last business suit.”

2. “Jonathan doesn’t golf, so I guess I gotta do it.”

1. “My new office is VERY close to the men’s room.”

General Grant, Vicksburg, and Perserverance

It was on this date, May 19, 1863, that General Ulysses S. Grant began his assault on the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Although his troops made a daring run past the Confederate batteries, they failed to overwhelm the city. With Union gunboats on the river and trenches surrounding the city, Grant's soldiers settled down to a six-week siege.

On July 4th, Confederate General John C. Pemberton, and his 30,000 troops surrendered. Vicksburg was a major point in the the Civil War. Grant's victory gained control of the Mississippi River for the Union, and geographically divided the Confederacy.

Ulysses S. Grant is one of the most misunderstood of American presidents. Today, he is often remembered for his purported weakness for drink, and his scandal-ridden presidency. However, in his day, he was considered a national hero and savior of the Union...and was more popular than Abraham Lincoln.

Ulysses Grant's most courageous act came during the last year of his life. In 1884, Grant and his family were destitute as a result of a financial fraud and business failure. That same year, he was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer. Racing against  the clock and enduring searing pain, Grant wrote his personal memoirs, which he hoped would provide financial security for his family. Grant completed the text just days before his death on July 23, 1885.

With more than 325,000 copies sold, the selling of Grant's memoirs was recognized as one of the most successful book campaigns of the 19th century...that eventually earned the Grant family more than $400,000. It was also a huge literary success...Gertrude Stein thought that Grant's memoirs  were one of the pre-eminent American works of the century.

"Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any fondness for war, and I have never advocated it except as a means of peace."...Ulysses Simpson Grant

Low Hanging Fruit

Seamus Brown is a refugee from the high-powered sales world of Silicon Valley...who now runs a sales training and coaching firm out of Grass Valley, CA, from his website, www.industrialego.com. In a recent newsletter, he describes the danger of picking of "low-hanging fruit"...from a sales perspective.

Verbatim...here is what he says:

Have you ever heard another salesman say "I'm going after
the low-hanging fruit"?

Or "There's lots of low-hanging fruit in this territory"?

I certainly have heard this sales cliché hundreds of times.

The low-hanging fruit is the stuff that is "easy to pick",
because it hangs low and you don't have to "work" to get it
by climbing the tree or getting a ladder.

Likewise in sales, low-hanging fruit is supposed to be the
"easy sales".

What is attractive about the low-hanging fruit is that we
typically define these deals as ones where the prospect is
ready to make a purchase.

Now if you already have a relationship with the prospect and
you have gotten into the account early before all the
others, then a prospect who is ready to make a purchase is a
*very* qualified deal.

But if you are just finding out about a deal that is ready
and in the market make a decision, then you should be very
concerned.


OVER-HANDLED FRUIT GOES BAD

Unfortunately there is a problem with the low-hanging fruit.

Do you know what that problem is?

The "fruit" has been handled too much.

You see, when there is low-hanging fruit out there,
everybody knows about it.

And everybody wants to touch it, have it, have it, pick it,
and eat it.

Every salesman in the territory knows about the low-hanging
fruit.

So what seem to be the easiest deals are instead the *most*
competitive deals you can play in.


ONLY ONE CAN ULTIMATELY HARVEST THE FRUIT

In the end though, only one person can pick that piece of
fruit and eat it, and only one salesman can close the sale
and fatten his wallet.

So the next time you get a lead that says they are ready to
make a purchase, and "Can we come and look at your product",
beware.

This is probably a piece of fruit that has been handled too
much.

Such potential sales should be qualified extra hard.

Here's a few questions you should ask of the deals that
sound to-good-to-be-true:


o Why are they calling You?

o Why are they calling You Now?

o Who is in the deal besides You?

o How long have they been looking at Your Competitors?

o Why don't they just purchase from one of Your Competitors?


Now I am not telling you to pass on every piece of low-
hanging fruit. Some people can do very well playing here as
long as you know your's and your competitor's strengths and
weaknesses really well.


LOOK HIGHER UP ON THE TREE

What I do suggest if you want to have the most success in
selling, is to look higher up on the tree.

The fruit that is higher up on the tree hasn't been handled
very much. It is harder to get.

There are accounts in your territory right now that could be
a prospect for you. They may need something a few months or
more later on this year.

Those are some of the best accounts to prospect in.

But you have to prospect differently.

When you are looking for the low-hanging fruit, typically
all you do is ask someone if they are in the market to
purchase the type of product you sell.

I call this method of prospecting "polling".

When you look higher up on the tree, you prospect for
problems. You look for problems that you can solve well with
your product.

When you prospect higher up the tree like this, you get
better access to decision-makers, and you have significant
influence over their decision criteria.

Its ultimately about being proactive in your territory, and
focusing on finding the prospects that are best for you to
sell to.

Referral Blog

Mark Twain said that "All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, then success is sure." As much as I love the wit and wry advice of the greatest of America's humorists...his formula for success is incomplete with regard to the state of business today. Success in business is a direct function of our visibility and credibility within the networks that we invest in...and the word-of-mouth referrals that are generated from these networks.

Today, I want to refer you to a new feature of the Automatic Referrals website, a Referral Clinic and Blog-a-thon!  Automatic Referrals asked financial advisors to send in their toughest referral challenges. Now they're featuring the 20 best, along with solutions from top referral experts and veteran financial advisors. 

This should be interesting and valuable. Take a moment to check them out.

Big Money in Motion!!!

This past April, the state of California had a record month for income tax receipts. The reason? Google's top executives and directors sold a bunch of Google's stock last year...and paid their capital gains tax last month.

California took in $11.3 billion in tax receipts in April of 2006...$4.3 billion more than in the same month in 2005. It is believed that much of this gain came from the capital gains tax on stock sales by Google employees. Last year, the search engine's 14 top executives and directors sold $4.4 billion worth of stock, including $2.6 billion in stock sold by founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Assuming the insiders acquired the stock at very low cost, and that they all are in the state's top bracket of 10.3%, this group would owe the state a cool $450 million in capital gains tax.

This does not include the legions of middle-manager Google employees, who do not have to publicly disclose their stock sales. Presumably, many of these folks were sellers too...pushing the state's take to well above the $450 million amount.

California says: We (heart) Sergey and Larry!