I’m in the mood for selling.

Chris 0:00
Ladies and gentleman this is Martin Henley, great pleasure in introducing him, fabulous speaker thank you, Martin.

Martin 0:07
Everybody feeling refreshed and recharged, everybody in the mood for some selling? Yeah. Okay, bringing you along slowly. Those of you around in the 80s, I know you all were, maybe you guys weren’t but you will, you will recognize the Nolan’s reference. My overriding dream is to have people up in the morning dancing to the Nolan sisters, I think that would be incredible, and one day that might actually happen.

What’s going to happen?

Martin 0:45
I’ve got an agenda for you this morning, what I’m going to do is I’m going to give you the opportunity to define what sales means to you, because sales doesn’t have a great rep does it? In this day and age, no, it doesn’t, a very definite no from the back. So I’m gonna give you the opportunity to define what sales means to you; I’m going to give you the opportunity to review your attitude to sales and sales people, I’m going to give you the opportunity to revise your belief in your own sales ability, I’m going to get you to commit to doing something different that will make you better at sales, I’m going to identify ways of motivating you and the people who sell for you, we’re going to do some silly things and we’re going to have some fun. Is that okay with everyone?

Audience 1:30
Yes Martin.

Martin 1:31
Thank you Tim. Excellent. So the big question then is what is it that we’re talking about? So we’re talking about selling. So the question in my mind, and the question I have for you is what is selling actually? Now just for the next 30 seconds, or 15 seconds each, I want you to turn to the person next to you, and actually just have a very, very quick conversation about actually what selling means to us. Okay, so 30 seconds starts now.

Defining what sales means to you.

Martin 2:04
Excellent. So we’ve got an idea in our minds of what selling is, and certainly we have something to talk about. Okay. Something you would like to share with the class?

Audience 2:26
Mine was coming away from a successful meeting of whatever shape or form happy that person I’ve been speaking to, is really happy with the decision that they’ve made to move forward with this business.

Martin 2:38
Okay, that sounds nice, doesn’t it? That sounds like a nice sales outcome. Not sure that is the attitude that we all have to sales. So anyway, I’ve got some ideas, it’s more sales people though. We’ve heard from Tim already this morning that you don’t want to be the salesperson in a networking meeting, because sales people are seen as being pushy. Let’s just have a little idea. So knocking on doors. Did anyone mention that knocking on doors was part of sales?

Audience 3:05
Nobody mentioned knockers over here.

Martin 3:07
Okay and our survey says … knocking on doors isn’t sales. Okay, cool. So did anyone mention cold calling, when they were talking about what sales means to them? Or what selling is? Your are sharp here this morning and our survey says. Excellent.

Martin 3:23
So networking, did anyone mention about networking when they were talking about what selling is this morning? Nobody mentioned, oh you are sharp. Okay, so building PowerPoint presentations. Did anyone mention building Powerpoint presentions is that selling? No. And the survey says … no. Okay, excellent. So doing research on the internet that’s got to be selling hasn’t it? No. So designing products, is that what sales is? Because salespoeple quite like to do that don’t they? Do? They talk to the customer and if what you’ve got to sell isn’t quite what the customer wants to buy so they want to redesign the product – did anyone say that. No. Okay, well, that’s interesting. What about playing solitaire? Anyone say anything about playing solitaire? No. That’s not sales. So we’ll go … are we loving the Family Fortunes theme? Loving it. Okay, excellent. So what about making the most of leads? Is that what sales is? Yes. Okay, so making most of leads, this is interesting. So I talk to people a lot and they say to us, either we’re gonna engage you to do some marketing, or we’re going to employ a salesperson. That’s interesting to me, because leads are actually the work of salespeople. If you have too many leads, you need more salespeople in every other case you need marketing. So absolutely, selling is about making the very most of leads. Okay, so what about helping people? So it’s interesting that helping people is actually selling, you’re just looking for people with problems, and you’re looking to help them solve those problems. So everyone agrees with that, because it’s the right answer. Okay, cool. So what about motivating people to do something? Yeah, yes. You’ve guessed it, we’re on the yes page? Yes. So absolutely motivating people to do something is sales and motivating people to do something is a hugely positive thing. When they’re stuck doing nothing with a problem, then if you can motivate them to do something about it, then that is a fantasticly positive thing. So I’m wondering if making it easy for people to buy is selling? We’re on the yes, page, Yes. So you say it was … yes. It astounds me because I’ve spent 15 years selling stuff, bending over backwards to make it easy for people, how difficult is to actually buy stuff. Because you phone people up and you say this is what I need, this is how much I’ve got to spend, and this is when I need it by, and the person gives you prices – Yes, yes. yes, – that’s all great, you put down the phone and you’ll never hear from those people ever again. What on earth is going on, just make it easy for people to buy. That’s good selling. What about asking silly questions, is that selling? Yes, yes. It’s selling because we’re on the yes page. Sure they will. Okay, so asking silly questions. The silly question I had in mind when I put this up was the silly question that you get in, McDonald’s – would you like fries with that? We know that silly question? Can you imagine how many millions of dollars that question is worth to McDonald’s every year? Because people say yeah, and then you might as well have the meal and then you might as well be morbidly obese. Asking silly questions. It’s interesting, because Tim touched on it in in his presentation about networking, if you want to be interesting, you have to be interested, you know, people won’t come to you and tell you their problems straight off the bat. Unless you’re prepared to actually delve a little bit, you won’t get to the root of the problem, you won’t fix the root of the problem, you won’t necessarily have a happy customer and a referring customer. So asking silly questions and being interested, and actually getting to the real root cause of the problem is really powerful and really effective selling I would say. Okay, cool. So making friends, is that selling?

Audience 7:19
Yeah.

Martin 7:22
Okay, cool. So that’s all it is, is go out there into the world and make friends that you can help with your solutions, you know, and if they are your friends, then they will work with you, that’s really effective selling. The last one I’ve got here is delivering on commitments.

Audience 7:37
Whoah

Martin 7:42
Is that selling, yes it is, do we do it? Yes, of course we do, we are the cream of the crop can we have a ding?

Commit to doing something different that will make you better at sales.

So what I’d like you to do with your new friend, that you were talking to just a second ago, I would like you to take the one or two things on that list that you are going to work on, which are going to make you a more effective salesperson and you’ve got 30 seconds to do that now. Oh, and also, I’d like you to definitely start with everyone’s commitment so I’d like you to exchange cards and agree to speak in a week’s time and see what you’ve actually done about that. Okay, 30 seconds.

Review your attitude to sales and sales people.

Martin 8:21
Okay, cool. So we’ve exchanged business cards, we’re gonna be in touch with each other in two weeks time to make sure that we’re doing the things that we’ve said we’re gonna do. Yeah. Yep. So we’re all good with that. Okay. So if that is what sales is aren’t we all just selling all the time.

Audience 8:38
No.

Martin 8:38
Who said no? You said, No, you’re not selling all the time? You’re not you’re not making friends? No, you’re not helping people?

Audience 8:47
Obviously.

Martin 8:48
You are? You’re delivering on your commitments? You’re asking questions? You’re selling all the time. Yeah, in every relationship, if you motivate someone to do something different, if it’s someone who works for you, if it’s someone in your family, or it’s a customer, then you are selling. So we are all selling all of the time. Does that make sense to everyone?

Audience 9:07
Yes.

Martin 9:08
But there’s a block that comes down when we start doing it in our businesses is that? I don’t know, there doesn’t need to be. So if you are doing this, you are all successful salespeople. Be happy you are all successful salespeople. Okay, cool. So how are we doing have we defined what sales means to us?

Audience 9:30
Yes.

Martin 9:30
Yes, we did that. Have you reviewed your attitude to sales and sales people?

Audience 9:34
Yes.

Martin 9:35
Yes. Have you revised your belief in your sales ability?

Audience 9:39
Oh yes.

Martin 9:39
Oh, yes. have you committed to do something different that will make you better at selling.

Audience 9:44
Yes.

Martin 9:45
Yes, you have. Have we identified ways of motivating yourself and the people who sell for you? Oh okay, have we done some silly things? Are we having some fun.

Audience 9:58
Yeah.

Martin 9:59
Yeah we are having some fun. Okay, cool.

Ways to motivate yourself and the people who sell for you.

So why do salespeople need to be motivated? This is an interesting question because you don’t talk about motivating the accounts people do you? God help us. What is it that is particular to sales that salespeople need to be motivated. I’ve got an idea that actually, if you work in accounts on the day you turn out, there is plenty of work to be done. Can you imagine that? If you work in compliance, there is loads of work to be done? Yeah, you turn up in sales, or if you turn out to paint bridges, you know what the work is forever, don’t you? You know that you can see that there’s a lot of work for that bridge painter, yes? When you turn up to work in sales, there’s nothing. There’s nothing. You might, if you’re lucky, have a phone and a desk, and other than that, there’s no work to be done. You might want to come down and speak to the golf club, there’s so little work to be done. So that’s one reason that salespeople need to be motivated because they are self generating, because salespeople are about bringing in the work. If salespeople don’t bring you the work, there is no work to be done. So you have to be a self starter if you’re going to be in sales. The other thing is that sales never ends. So I don’t know if you’re familiar with Sisyphus, but he was dammed by the gods to push this rock up the mountain forever, for all eternity. If you’ve worked in sales, you will recognise that because you get drunk on the 30th of the month or the 31st, because you had a great month, and the next morning you are a bum and you are starting again with nothing. So it’s continuous, sales goes on for absolutely ever, like the Sydney Harbour Bridge. As soon as they painted it, they start painting it again. It goes on forever, sales goes on forever. And people don’t like us. People don’t like being sold to they don’t like salespeople it perterbs me that people still insist in putting sales on their business cards. You might as well write please don’t like me on your business card. I think it’s interesting. People don’t like us. So we need to be motivated. So that’s an idea. Because people buy people don’t they. So you need to be motivated to be the sort of person that people buy. What sort of people do people buy? Happy people. People who are bright people who are

Audience 12:42
Married.

Martin 12:43
Married? Bubbly. People buy people who are bright and bubbly and generally just the sort of people you want to be around. So Mary Poppins is absolutely my brand idol. Because, you know, she’s clear, she’s concise, and she’s got a natty way of getting things done. Ex nun. People want to be ex nun? Is that what they say at Estate Agent school?

Martin 13:13
You just wants to be the sort of person that people want to have in their lives. Like Tim, I want to have Tim in my life.

Martin 13:27
And if you are the sort of person then you will be an incredibly busy and incredibly successful salesperson. It really is kind of as simple as that. So how are we doing? Have we defined what sales means to us?

Audience 13:41
Yes.

Martin 13:42
Have we reviewed your attitude to sales and sales people?

Audience 13:46
Yes we have.

Martin 13:46
Have you reviewed your belief in your sales ability?

Audience 13:48
Yes.

Martin 13:50
Have we committed to doing something that will make you better at sales?

Audience 13:53
Yes.

Martin 13:53
Have we identified ways of motivating yourself and those who sell for you?

Audience 13:57
Yes.

Martin 13:58
No we haven’t.

Martin 14:05
Have we done some silly things? You are wondering what those silly things are going to be? I would just love it if I could do this one day everyone would be up dancing to the Nolan Sisters at the end, just one time in my life, that would be fantastic. We’re having fun. We’re having fun. Okay, cool. So how do we motivate salespeople? Someone say the word.

Audience 14:27
Money.

Martin 14:28
Yes, so money motivates salespeople does it?

Audience 14:32
Not always?

Martin 14:32
Not ever really. Money is a really tricky thing. Money has become a conceptual thing in our lives. You know, I went to a chemist recently, I spent seven pounds, for comedic effect it doesn’t have to be a chemist does it?

Audience 14:48
It’s seven pounds for a prescription.

Martin 14:50
Okay, it might have been a prescription.

Audience 14:51
Did it stop the itching?

Martin 14:57
They said to me Sorry, we don’t take a card, because they don’t take card for less than 10 pounds. So I felt perturbed that I had to go to the cash point and draw out 10 pounds and go back and leave with the change in my pocket. It was like an imposition, because we don’t relate to money that way anymore. I grew up in the 80s. In the 80s, my dad used to come home on a Thursday night with his brown pay packet with his pay in it. That was the money that we had for the week, and when that money was gone, if it was gone, by Saturday morning, we were hiding behind the sofa from the milkman. Because money was real in those days, these days, it’s a conceptual thing. Especially in all of our minds, it’s a conceptual thing. So being motivated by money is really actually very difficult. I’m wondering if we all really value money so much would we be, or would we have suffered the credit crunch that we’ve just suffered? I don’t think we would. So money is a tricky thing. What you need to do is you need to connect it to the things that actually have meaning in your life. So you need to connect it to the houses, or the cars, or the works of art if you’re Fabio Capello, or the boats, or the African safaris, or the shoes that you might buy. Yes.

Audience 16:06
She truly is listening.

Martin 16:08
Now I managed somebody once and we didn’t ever speak about how many meetings she was sitting, or how many clients she saw, or how many proposals she put out, we spoke about shoes. Because Melody was into shoes. So she would be motivated to make as much money as she could so she could go at the end of the month and buy as many shoes as she likes and our husband wouldn’t be able to say a word about it. Bless him. So what do you have to do if you’re going to motivate people with money, you have to know actually what they’re going to do with that money, because that is a reality for them especially. Okay, so money is a challenging one. In fact, if you read a book called Drive by Daniel Pink, it’s a fantastic book, he talks about the challenges of motivating people with money. In fact, they’ve done international studies where they’ve, they’ve done tests with people and motivated them by money. So if you are even a poor person in India, in rural India, you will not be motivated by money, unless it’s a mechanical task. If you say to someone pile up those boxes really quickly, I’ll give you 10 pounds, then they’ll do it, if you start give me 50 pounds, they might do it quicker. So for mechanical tasks, actually, money is a motivator. If you ask people to do something with their minds, if you ask them to think about something, and remember, this is what sales is, isn’t it, it’s about being creative, and finding ways of helping people and motivating people to do something else. So you’ve got two minds that you need to make up, then money just becomes a distraction, it absolutely becomes a distraction. What he concludes is that money is absolutely a motivator, it has an effect on motivation, but the biggest effect it has is if there’s not enough money on the table, people will be distracted by that. They will be distracted by that, they’ll be thinking about how they can pay their bills, rather than how they can hit their target. Does that make sense?

Audience 17:57
Yes.

Martin 17:58
So it’s interesting when you come to think about commission only salespeople what’s their mind on? Is their mind on making friends? Is it on helping people? Is it on motivating people to do something different? It’s about actually just about them just hitting their target however they can. So it’s interesting. What he says is that there are some really powerful motivators, things that really motivate all of us and if we running our own businesses, we will understand the motivation that comes from autonomy, actually being the architect of your own future. That’s really powerful and motivating, we think. Interestingly, I’ve never walked into a business where they manage their salespeople effectively. So they’ve got complete autonomy. It’s just that nobody’s ever told them about it. Does that make sense?

Audience 18:42
Yeah.

Martin 18:42
Okay, so I’m not suggesting that the pope is autonomous, you know, there is a higher power.

Martin 18:48
Mastery. People invest their weekends in doing things in learning skills, because they want to be better at them. They might go to comedy training clubs, they might learn the guitar, they might play chess, but people want to be better at stuff. Does that make sense? People want to practice and they want to feel like they’re growing and evolving and this Daniel Pink uses to describe the huge open software systems that are available, like Open Office, people just came together with no promise of any pay or even any credit and they just put this thing together to rival the office system that’s put out by Microsoft. That’s because people want to master the things that they’re doing. Sales people want to be good salespeople. And purpose is really, really powerful in terms of motivation. Who here has a purpose for being in their business for doing the things that they want to do? Certainly I do. I want to revolutionise marketing. I want people to think about it differently, to get excited about it, to engage in it, so they can take charge of their business. Now, I’ve never met a salesperson who’s a Mother Teresa. but I’ve never met sales person who didn’t want to help things, who didn’t want to help the world. Does that make sense to everyone? Okay, so purpose is really really powerful as as a motivator. Of course recognition is really powerful. People want to be recognised for the efforts that they’re making. Does that make sense? So tell your salespeople well done, if they’re not even doing brilliantly, they’ll soon get into the habit of doing that. So recognise every little bit of innovation and every bit of target that they bring to you. And for yourself, that’s interesting, because the money thing, if we were running our own business, that’s kind of on the table twice, isn’t it? So is there for the sales that we’re going to make, and is there for the bills that we have to pay? So you can never really get that money off the table? Okay, so recognition. Okay. So if you want to be the sort of people that people want in their lives, if you’re going to be bright, and bubbly, what sort of state do you need to be do you think, to do that? Positive, happy, anything else?

Audience 20:50
Engaged.

Martin 20:51
Engaged, interested. You know, these are the kinds of states that you need to be in. I think we are in charge of our state, you know, it’s really simple. It’s a physiology, you change your physiology, you change your state. So just be aware that if you want to engage people in a way, you have to be in the sort of state that they would like you to be in at the very beginning, I’ve got a little bit of video for you.

Martin 22:20
The All Blacks were ready for that game of rugby, can there be any doubt? That’s the investment that they make to make sure that they’re in the state that they need to be to go out and win a rugby match. Is there a South African in the room? Okay, then there’s no one here to remind us that they actually lost that game. It’s an investment that they made for 100 years, there’s 100 years of tradition, so actually when the All Blacks step onto a rugby pitch they are deadly serious about what it is that they’re doing. Now, is there a more serious function in your business than bringing money in? Delivery? So you can continue to bring the money in? Do you get to deliver if you haven’t bought any money in?

Audience 23:01
No.

Martin 23:01
So Mary Poppins isn’t with us this morning. So actually, the most serious activity in your business is about bringing money into your business. Does that make sense to everyone? And so actually, the people who bring your money in if you employ salespeople, they need to be the most serious people in your business, because that’s the most serious function. Does that make sense to everyone? Okay, there’s an issue here and the issue is that we are actually just slaves to our minds, do we understand that? We do and we operate within the tight limits within our minds. Does that make sense to everyone? We know that our minds are stupid? That they are really, really easily fooled. Do we know that? So actually, we can decide to do something that is actually beyond what our mind thinks. Okay, I’m feeling a silly thing coming on. Okay, I’m gonna ask you all to stand up and I’m going to demonstrate this to you right now how actually stupid your mind and how actually you could be the masters of your mind. Okay, so you’re gonna do some turning. So what I want you to do is just imagine you’ve got a pot of glue with a brush, it’s an old fashioned pot of glue with a brush. Put the brush into the glue, and I want you to put it on the soles of your feet so that your feet are stuck to the floor, so your feet don’t move. Could you all do that for me please? Great sound effects thanks. Well. Okay, so are we all stuck to the floor, our feet can’t move yeah? Okay, so what I would like you to do now is just raise your pointing finger in front of you like that and just point forwards. Does anyone have a bad back? Your excused. Okay, you can sit down if you like.

Audience 24:47
I’m gonna try.

Martin 24:48
Everyone saw me ask him didn’t they? Okay, cool. So, what I’m gonna ask you to do is I just want you to turn very slowly, pointing your finger in front of you. I just want you to go as far as you can go, don’t strain yourself, but just go to where you think the limit is. and make a mental note of how far you actually got. Okay, has everyone done that? has everyone got to where they can. So if you just come back very slowly towards the front, we’ve all got a good idea of what we’re capable of?

Audience 25:25
Yeah.

Martin 25:26
Ok have a little shake. What I want you to do now is to close your eyes and I just want you to imagine, you don’t need to do it, now I just want you to imagine raising your finger in front of you, like you did before. You’re just imagining now, Chris. Keep your eyes closed. Okay, I just want you to imagine now going through the same activity that you went through before. So you’re following your finger as you point it around the room. Okay, and you might just now be getting to the point that you’ve got to before, and what I’d like you to you imagine now is that you could just go a foot further one foot further than you were before. What I’d like you to imagine as that you could go maybe another foot forward. While we’re there, we might as well just go one foot forward. So visualize what it is that you’re now looking at, if you follow the direction of your finger. Okay, and I’d like you to bring it back now, in your mind’s to the front and put it down. Has everyone imagined that? Okay, so allow you to open your eyes now. So we’re just going to do the same exercise again, we’re still stuck to the floor, is everyone stuck, has anyone come loose? Okay, so now we’re going to raise our finger in front of us and just very gently, we’re just going to start turning. We’re just going to be interested to see how far we go.

Martin 26:53
How’s everyone going keep turning? Keep turning? How much further did you go? First, so that was interesting. Your mind said to shut down the first time. Actually, once we fooled your mind that this could happen it was actually really easy to replicate. So actually, we can consciously be in charge of what goes on in our mind. Okay, cool. So have a look, have a shake, that’s cool. What I would like you to do now, because for me, your psychology, your state is just about your physiology. So you can change it. So did anyone feel a change when they just stood up? They felt some energy change, yeah, and moving. So what I need to do now is I want to put your arms out. Okay, as far as you can stretch out nicely. I don’t want you to look up at the ceiling, I just want you to grin. How is that? Look up at the ceiling and I really, really want you to grin. It’s hard to be miserable, isn’t it when you in that position? Look up at the ceiling and really grin.

Martin 28:32
It’s just interesting, isn’t it? What was that Will?

Audience 28:35
Maybe next time.

Martin 28:36
Maybe next time. You know, I was just astounded that we got out to that stage in the presentation. Three or four dancers. I was actually paying attention this time. I’m interested to know how we did. Did we define what sales means to you?

Audience 28:48
Yes.

Martin 28:50
Did we review your attitude to sales and the sales people that you come into contact with?

Audience 28:54
Yes.

Martin 28:55
We did. Did we revise your belief in your sales ability?

Audience 28:58
Yes.

Martin 28:58
Yes, we did. Did you commit to do something different that will make you better at sales?

Audience 29:02
Yes.

Martin 29:03
qYes, you did. Did you identify ways of motivating yourselves and those who sell for you?

Audience 29:08
Yes.

Martin 29:08
Yes, we did that now. Did you do some silly things?

Audience 29:12
Yes.

Martin 29:13
Did we have some fun?

Audience 29:14
Yes.

Martin 29:15
I’m really glad because that’s the end for me. You can get in touch with me lots of ways. I just want to say thank you very much.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?