by Mike Brunel | Aug 7, 2019 | Sales, Strategy
Is 65 too old to sell? When do you retire? Are you over the hill at 65?
Here is an example which proves that age is no barrier, when it comes to selling.
I have a friend who owns a large real-estate company in one of our provincial cities. The population of this city is around 100,000 people.
It’s a beautiful part of my country and folk flock there in the Summertime for its amazing weather.
Last week, I caught up with him and we got talking about how things were going, sales, management issues, and the usual stuff we chat about when we see each other.
Performance incentive.
As an incentive for his staff, he offers the top ten salespeople for a calendar year the opportunity to win a few days away at an exotic designation.
This is hotly sought after and keenly fought for.
I asked how it was going and he remarked that it had just been announced and he had 10 winners again this year.
They were all excited and were off to a great destination.
I asked what type of people were going, and the mix, were they male? Female? Younger? Older?
Guess what? This year, the 10 winners were nudging 65 and were all women.
That’s right, an age when most of us would be thinking about retirement.
Working Hard.
Make no mistake, the company my friend owns is one of the best in his region, and if you want to win awards, you have to work really hard, and knuckle down to make it happen.
An excellent example.
So, is 65 too old to sell? The lesson I took away from this example was that working hard and carrying out the disciplines of selling was not limited to age, but attitude.
Age is no barrier to success, and these women proved it.
It’s also a great example about avoiding putting people in boxes and stereotyping them.
We often do that with our clients, using phrases like “They will never buy” or “They tried my product once and they said it did not work”
Maybe this week, think about all those women celebrating success because they worked hard and performed well and that age was no barrier.
Well done, I say.
Good selling.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
That’s why you can get FREE in your inbox every morning for 7 days; the 7 Day Sale Challenge.
Hop on over here and subscribe.
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
by Mike Brunel | Jul 31, 2019 | Sales, Strategy
When I owned NRS Media one of the best sales guys was Michael Botta.
Michael was one of our longest standing staff members at NRS Media, and was based in our Long Beach office, in good ole’ USA.
He was in front of thousands of media salespeople each year, and travelled weeks on end with our NRS Media message.
He understands the importance of work. Here is his definition of W-O-R-K:
W: Weighing
O: Opportunities
R: Repeatedly
(with)
K: Knowledge
We come to work, and what makes it frustrating for many of us at times, is that we are challenged to continually Weigh (consider, ponder, create) the Opportunities (challenges, problems, setbacks) that are Repeatedly uncovered during the course of commerce, which then causes us to tap into our Knowledge (experience, success, etc) to fix the problem.
This is a never-ending process.
Work is a gift?
Work should be viewed as an incredible gift given to us that make us more helpful to others. In fact, businesses all over the world are happy to compensate you for your WORK.
Work is the giving of yourself to help another. Work is actually the best thing for us, because, by its very nature it brings out our best qualities, our best inventions, our best solutions.
What work isn’t:
If, on the other hand, one views ‘W-O-R-K’ as: Wanting Others to Replace my Knowhow, then that individual is essentially holding back their unique gift and perspective, and not giving of themselves to help another.
Work for some people is merely something that they have to do, and not something that provides them an open door to use their creativity – or, is not viewed as a unique opportunity to share their creative insight for the benefit of another.
Fear, disappointment, rejection, anger, and blame, is what keeps one from doing their best WORK.
The way in which we view WORK has a significant impact on ourselves, our families, and the benefit of others. By doing our best WORK we can change lives for the better.
Great reason to get up and work every day and do something you love don’t you think?
Thanks Mr Botta!
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
That’s why you can get FREE in your inbox every morning for 7 days; the 7 Day Sale Challenge.
Hop on over here and subscribe.
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
by Mike Brunel | Jul 24, 2019 | Sales, Strategy
In Dan Kennedy’s book ‘No BS Sales Success’, he talks about a real estate agent called Pebby B.
Here is an abridged version…
“Peggy B gets 70% of her listings from referrals and 30% from advertising. When someone wants to list with Peggy they get put onto one of her three assistants. The assistants then vet the clients to see if they fulfil Peggy’s requirements for listing. If they do not, they are passed onto other real estate agents.
If they do, then a DVD on Peggy’s successes is sent direct that day, to the potential listed property owner.
An appointment is made, but the assistant arrives first (Peggy comes 20 minutes later). While the assistant is there, they go over the data of similar sales in the area, how long sales have taken, price expectation etc. etc.
Peggy then calls to let the client know she is on the way, then arrives and listens to her assistant’s overview of the property. Next Peggy asks if is okay, while they talk, for the assistant to take a few photos of the house. (This is a trial close)
Why would they let her go ahead if they were not interested in listing the house?
Peggy then uses her flip book, and goes over the ten steps they will use together to get the best price for the house. An agreement is produced that has been partially completed by the assistant from the information obtained over the phone.
Last year Peggy listed 92% of the homes where she made this listing presentation immediately, without delay.”
I highly recommend you buy this book to get literally hundreds of ideas for your sales presentations. I personally fight for every referral I can get; I have a system in my book to tease up clients before you present your offering.
This can be done with some planning and understanding of what and how important referrals and structured presentations are.
Please share your ideas on what you do when you first meet a client.
Good selling.
Mike
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
That’s why you can get FREE in your inbox every morning for 7 days; the 7 Day Sale Challenge.
Hop on over here and subscribe.
For more content like this, please make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
by Mike Brunel | Sep 25, 2018 | Leadership, Sales, Strategy
If you’ve read my last few posts. you’ll see that I’ve been discussing the mistakes business owners make ( I have made every one of them- no kidding!) when it comes to getting the right salesperson on your team.
I want to give you as much value as I can, so here are three important hoops (as I call them) that you might want to think about when it comes to employing new salespeople.
Structure Not Gut
Hoop 1- Company Culture Fit
Company Culture– While we believe that fitting in with the company culture is important, as demonstrated in the graph on our
FREE report, it makes up only 10%
.
Don’t get too caught up in making sure this is a major part of the recruiting process.
Create a good
job description.
This is a critical factor in hiring good salespeople. When you advertise for a salesperson what do you ask?
How do you define the role? What are you looking for? What is the remuneration?
*Chet Holmes, one of my early mentors, always did this exercise when advertising for super salespeople.
Write down three initiatives that you would love to hire someone to do in your business.
Three only. Next to each one, do this:
What would it mean to your business?
How would it change your business?
Now list what you could afford to pay such people if they really performed.
Do the exercise. This forms the foundation of good a job description.
Hoop 2- Structuring an interview – History of Success.
Once you get the CV’s for the position, look for a history of success. Somewhere that you can see a challenge; a life experience that they overcame.
Structuring an interview- A structured interview process makes up 30% or a third of the process (
FREE report). That’s a lot. In your structured interview, you should have some questions to ask, after reading the CV. Here are a few to start with.
How do you function as a team?
How do you feel about operating in a team environment?
Do you like working on your own outside of that team?
Can you tell me about a time when you were asked to do a project on your own? What was it?
These questions might just get the process moving.
Challenge the candidate– You are hiring salespeople to do a specific job. Human beings inherently will do anything to avoid pain. However, in the business of selling, rejection is part of what selling really is, and it can be painful.
If everyone got 100% of the business every time they presented a product, the salesperson would be out of business.
If you are hiring a salesperson to sell your product and prospecting is part of that, would you not at least ask them
“What happens when you get a ‘ No!’ – How do you react?”
Ask them this, and see what happens:
“ You know what, I’m not convinced that you are the right person for this job.” Observe their reaction. Do they just sit there? Or do they do something that indicates to you they might do the same with a client?
Hoop 3- Assessment Tools
This also makes up 30% of the job evaluation- We personally take a lot of guidance from these types of assessments and we go into more detail here:
Download my FREE report We used to call these the B.S. detector.
We carried these assessments out in my company specifically for the roles we were looking for, in salary and performance-based positions.
Our salespeople had to work alone. We had salespeople sprinkled all over the world; usually unmanaged, working in an unstructured environment.
We had to be really clear on what we were looking for. That’s where traits/ behaviours come into play. We knew we had to hire for the task, not just the attitude.
In my next post, I explain what I look for in a salesperson, and how I came to that.
Download my FREE report to learn more, or email me… mike@mikebrunel.com
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME!
by Mike Brunel | Aug 8, 2018 | Sales, Strategy
What not to do when Hiring Salespeople.
Hire in your own likeness- A potential salesperson comes in to meet with you, and within a short time you have hit it off, you may have even shared some key rapport-building facts about each other.
Of all the applicants that you have spoken with, this one is the one that you like the most. Your gut feels great, you like him, he reminds you of a younger you. You hire you.
Now you might be the best salesperson in your business, but if you want to grow, you better make sure that you do more than just hire on your gut.
It’s a good feeling to have, but there are other factors that come into play.
Fill a hole, find a salesperson.
This is a big mistake that I see all the time. Hiring under stress. As the saying goes “Hire slowly Fire quickly.” As a business owner, we do feel the pressure of getting a position filled.
Maybe, as a sales manager, you may feel the pressure to fill the quota and get the sales back on track. It’s natural that you push them through quickly. I have been guilty of this myself until I learned that hiring to fill a hole is a recipe for failure. How do you learn? Watching that money flush down the “you know what”!
“No one can sell as well as you do”
This one is a beauty. You are afraid to hire because they might just not be as good as you. I remember taking on a position of Sales Manager in a company, to find that the amazing sales manager I replaced had all the top clients, held onto them, and starved the team of success.
No one could sell like him I was told. Well, guess what? When I gave some of his clients to the other members of the team, the business never looked back.
If your business is going well and you want to grow, this attitude will stop you in your tracks.
Growth only comes in a business if you are prepared to hire more ‘how’ people that can free you up to help you make better decisions around what you are good at.
I can pretty much guarantee my clients a foolproof way to multiply their business tenfold. Hire more people to do the how and you do what you get excited about.
Those are the big three mistakes that business owners make when it comes to hiring salespeople.
Download my FREE report to learn more, or email me… mike@mikebrunel.com
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME!
by Mike Brunel | Aug 8, 2018 | Sales, Strategy
How to hire a Superstar Salesperson each and every time
Today, I released my free report on How to Hire a Superstar Salesperson each and every time.
To coincide with releasing this free report, I wanted to share some of my thoughts around how I have hired salespeople and some key takeaways I have learned, through good and bad hires.
Who is this for?
It’s for any business owner, Sales Manager, or a startup who needs to hire a salesperson who is rewarded by a salary and performance-based performance-based
If you’ve ever hired any salespeople, like I have, you’ve usually made or have made one of these mistakes.
Just so you know, I’m fully qualified to be writing about this stuff – I’ve hired, fired, coached, or managed hundreds of salespeople, over too many years to remember, in many different countries and languages.
It’s fair to say that I’ve been through the school of hard knocks.
I hired magnificent salespeople beginning with one wonderful amazing woman, a single mum, who through sheer hard work and effort exceeded her targets in her job as a sales manager in a small media company in New Zealand.
With my main business, I was lucky to find two brothers for my U.S. operation who brought in millions of dollars.
These two superstars have certain traits, talents, and habits, that we knew would leverage our sales systems worldwide, if we could duplicate their process…. which we did.
As a result, I noticed traits in these people, secrets that I always look for. I think I know by now, what they are.
Before I go into that, let’s talk about two of the mistakes that we often make, when we go to hire salespeople.
What not to do
What’s the cost of Hiring Badly?
Think about these stats for a moment. According to a Harvard Business review article, the cost of replacing a salesperson that was hired badly ranges from $75,000 to $90,000, while other sales positions can cost a company as much as $300,000.
These figures don’t reflect the lost sales while a replacement is found and trained.
One of my good friends who owns a telecommunication company has told me a bad hire for him costs a least $1 million over time.
That’s horrendous. This may not change as we enter this new world of communication. As a company or small business, you simply cannot afford to hire on gut alone.
Is Fit Important? Maybe.
A culture fit in any business is important, there’s no doubt about that, but what you need to discover firstly is “Does this person have the ability/talent to do the job?”
That is the underlying question that needs to be asked by you as an employer of salespeople.
In the next blog, I am going to cover off some of the common mistakes that we made when we hired a salesperson for our business.
Download my FREE report to learn more, or email me… mike@mikebrunel.com
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. His products and services are now sold in 23 countries and in 11 languages generating $350 million annually in sales for his clients. Mike sold the company in 2015 and now spends his time following his passions which include rugby, travel. His promise: “I can find thousands of dollars in your business within minutes – GUARANTEED” TRY ME!
