3 Strategy Lessons from Apollo 13

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Ian Heller in the video below does a great job outlining three strategy lessons from Apollo 13.

The lessons are –

1). Base your strategy on data.

2). Develop detailed action plans

3). Set goals that build excitement and conviction.

Why are the above lessons important? Because too often many sales and marketing teams are winging it, rather than developing a solid strategy based on facts and reality. Sure, sometimes you need to trust your gut. It’s always good to experiment. But it’s also a good idea to take a hard look at the facts, brainstorm, and come up with some solutions. Put it down on paper. Review it. Get a consensus and move forward. And have some enthusiasm for whatever you do.

It’s also a good idea to bring your sales team in the process. Sometimes decisions are made behind closed doors by upper management, but they don’t seek advice from some of the smartest people in the company – their sales team. After all, it’s the sales team that is serving on the front lines every day. They, more than anyone else, have a good handle on how clients are feeling, and what problems they are trying to solve. In short, they are taking the pulse of their industry.

Here is his video below –

Can you sell me this pen or pencil? Part 4

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I hope you enjoyed some of the videos on parts 1, 2 and 3 on “can you sell me this pen or pencil?”

What are the key takeaways from this question?

1). No one is actually hiring you to sell pens or pencils. The real goal is to see how what your sales process is, and how advanced you are as a salesperson. Are you jumping right in and talking about the benefits of the pen or pencil, or are you asking good qualifying questions first? Are you determining the needs or problems of your client, or you are doing a product dump and hope that something will stick? It doesn’t make any difference how great the pen or pencil is if your client doesn’t need it. Heck, he may have a whole closet full of writing instruments. The point is to qualify the client first because moving forward with the benefits.

2). Sometimes hiring decision-makers want to catch you off guard and see how fast you can think on your feet. After all, customers will sometimes ask strange questions or make unusual requests. How do you respond? Do you get flustered easily? Do you feel insulted by being asked such a ridiculous question? Or, do you remain cool, size up the situation, and put your sales thinking cap on? Always try to be prepared for the unexpected.

3). Sure, on some level, the question may be unfair. After all, you may have years of sales experience under your belt. You may have sold very complex products and handled long sales cycles. But if you think the interviewing process is unfair, what about selling? That’s not always fair either. For example, you may spend months working with a client, only to have him buy from a competitor, or leave the company, or not purchase at all because of budget constraints. Get used to it. It happens.

So, if you are ever asked “can you sell me this pen or pencil?”, how are you going to answer it?

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Can you sell me this pen or pencil? Part 3

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In Part 3 of my post on “Can you sell me this pen or pencil?”, here are some other answers that could help you answer this classic question –

Kaboom Jobs offers this answer below –

Honor Academy interns are given the opportunity to test their ability to sell you a pen –

Can you sell me this pen or pencil? Part 2

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In part 1, I showed how three sales and career  experts would answer the classic question “can you sell me this pen or pencil?”

Here is part 2 of the post. I will provide part 3 soon with some more videos.

This is how Brian Burns, author of “The Maverick Selling Method,” would answer the question –

Scott Bell, a Sales Consultant, has a different approach –

Claude Diamond, applies his G.U.T.S sales and success system when he does some role-playing to sell a pencil –

Can you sell me this pen or pencil? Part 1

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One of the classic questions during an interview for a sales position is “can you sell me this pencil or pen? Frankly, I think this is a ridiculous question. I’ve never been asked this question in any of my previous interviews. However, recently the question has become more popular because of The Wolf of Wall Street movie. In two scenes in the movie, Jordan Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) asks the question.

As a result of the popularity of the movie, I suspect that more sales candidates will be asked this question too. How are you going to answer it?

Below are some videos from YouTube on how these sales and career experts would answer the question. I will include more videos in parts 2 and 3.

This is how Alan Gordon from “The Big Book of Sales” would answer the question –

This is how Graham Martin, the Recruitment Guy, would answer the question –

Sales Recruiter Peggy McKee explains how she would answer the question –

Great advice for sales managers

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In the video below, Bob Perkins, founder of AA-ISP, offered three tips for sales managers. He discussed how important is it to create a motivating cultural and to ensure that salespeople are valued. He advises sales managers to do the following –

1). Make prospecting sales calls with your sales team. Among other things, this will help sales managers gain credibility with their sales team. This is important because too often sales managers are either busy working in an office, or attending department level meetings, and don’t always have a good understanding of what is going on in the real world. Getting on the sales floor and showing your team that you are willing to get in the trenches with them is a major morale buster. It reminds me of the movie “Patton”, where the general at one point decides to walk among his troops along a dirt road.  Sometimes you need to walk the same path with your sales team to gain their respect and earn their credibility.

2). Delegate. He advises sales managers to delegate some projects to team members. Not only does this relieve the sales manager’s workload, but it also shows that he respects his team members to be problem solvers. He argues that team members will feel valued and invested in the sales process. I should add that is this also a good way of grooming future managers down the road. Too often when sales managers leave or are promoted, companies are faced with the daunting task of hiring or promoting a new manager. By giving team members a chance to solve problems and work on projects, you will begin to see who your next potential new manager may be.

3). Make it personal. Take team members out to lunch or dinner. Take the time to get to know your salespeople as human beings and that you care about them. Great advice!  Some sales managers will only treat their salespeople as meal tickets rather than as real people who have goals to achieve and problems to resolve.

Here is the video of Bob Perkins advice –