The Prospecting Professor

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!

The Golden Spike

It was on this day, May 10, 1869 at Promontory, Utah...that the greatest event in the history of transportation on this continent occurred...as the Union Pacific tracks joined those of the Central Pacific Railroad.

The impetus for the completion of the transcontinental railroad was provided by the energy and enterprise of four California entrepreneurs: Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins...or the "Big Four" as they came to be known.

The connection of the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific bridged the 2000 miles from the Missouri to the 'Golden State.' and the four to six months time taken by overland pioneers was reduced to six days.

While the "Big Four" provided the vision and the money to the Transcontinental Railroad, it was the Chinese who lent their sweat, toil, and blood. Beginning with the Gold Rush, the Chinese saw California as the opportunity to escape the grinding poverty of their homeland. Paying $40 cash, thousands were packed into ships for the voyage to "Golden Mountain." Lying on their sides beneath the decks, in 18 inches of space, mortality ran as high as 25% on some of the ships.

By 1865, about 50,000 Chinese had arrived at "Golden Mountain." They could not vote, become citizens, own property...and lived in segregated communities. After the Central Pacific began building the Transcontinental Railroad eastward from Sacramento, the demand for Chinese laborers increased still further. Central Pacific hired all of the available Chinese workers in the state, and sent agents to Canton, Hong Kong, and Macao to find more willing immigrants.

For those of you who have ever driven I-80 over Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevadas, you will be familiar with the solid granite outcroppings of this fantastic mountain range. Imagine attempting to claw a railroad over this redoubtable terrain. The Chinese did. After the Cornish Miners who were imported by the Central Pacific gave up, the Chinese used pick, shovel, and black powder to progress at 8 inches per day. The Chinese worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from both ends of the Sierras. The winters were some of the worst on record, with over 40 feet of snow at the higher elevations. The Chinese had to dig tunnels from their huts to the work tunnels. Many didn't see daylight for months.

The World Grows Smaller. The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad linked East and West, opened up vast areas to settlement, and provided easy access to new markets. The railroad ensured a production boom, as industry mined the vast resources of the middle and western continent for use in production. The railroad was America's first technology corridor.

Warren Buffett and Emotions

"Pessimism is the most common cause of low prices. We want to do business in such an environment, not because we like pessimism but because we like the prices it produces. It's optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer."...Warren Buffett

Investing decisions that are driven by normal human behavior can have a deleterious effect upon long-term wealth accumulation. Many investors, even the most savvy, allow their emotions to get in the way of rational investment decision-making. Our emotions have the nasty habit of encouraging investors to buy and sell at the wrong time...causing us to buy high and sell low...which is the reverse of what should be done.

Three Common Behavioral Issues. 1. Herd Mentality reflects the natural tendency to do what is currently popular, e.g. buy securities AFTER the market has risen, or sell securities AFTER significant declines. Herding is defined as a group of investors following each other into (or out of) the same securities over a period of time. 2. Regret Aversion is the avoidance of the pain of regret associated with bad decisions. This trait causes investors to hold onto losing positions too long...or to avoid the markets during periods of depressed prices, at exactly the right time to invest more. 3. Mental Accounting is used by investors to build portfolios as separate accounts, and to disregard the correlations among assets. Investors do not evaluate investments based on the contribution to the overall portfolio return and total risk, but only upon the recent performance of the asset layer.

For long-term wealth-accumulation, investors are encouraged to think counter-intuitively. Contrarian investing and portfolio rebalancing are the most effective manifestations of counter-intuitive investment thought.

Speaking of rebalancing, in the May issue of "Financial Planning," there is an interesting article that discusses a new software program that performs sophisticated rebalancing techniques...that enhance portfolio returns even beyond what 'normal' rebalancing accomplishes.

Expert vs. Advisor

David Maister is a native of Great Britain, holds degrees from the University of Birmingham, the London School of Economics and a doctorate in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. In 2002, he was identified as one of the top 40 business thinkers in the world. He is also a frequent writer, and in the April edition of "Law Practice Today" he compares and contrasts being an "expert" vs an "advisor."

Expert

• Job is the right-to-solve clients problems through the application of technical and professional skill.
• Takes responsibility away from client and acts as if he/she is "in charge" until the project is done.

Advisor

• Rather than being "right," the advisor's job is to be helpful...providing guidance, input, and counseling to the client's own though and decision-making process.
• Client retains control and responsibility. Advisor is subordinate to client.

As Mr. Maister points out, neither role is inherently better. The only mistake is to pretend. An expert who wants to be an expert is going to be miserably poor at pretending to be an advisor, and is going to resent the client throughout the time that they work together.

What do clients want? Of course, each client is different. I tend to think that the majority of clients today are looking for a trusted advisor. Fewer are looking for experts. I also wonder if their isn't a generational dynamic here too. From my experience, members of the GI Generation, and older...are more willing to accept, and seek, the expert. However, I think that Baby Boomers want more control...and are less willing to cede responsibility to anyone.