My dad was a minister of religion and preached in the Cape in the 1950s. Believe it or not, he had groupies following him around. Ok, not as many as the Rolling Stones would have had, but enough to be noticed. I asked him, "What is it that attracted all these females to you?" His answer was simple and is a valuable lesson for all of us in sales and marketing. "Get the head and the heart and the body will soon follow," he said.

When I teach influencing strategies, I always say, "Sell on emotion … sell to the heart." We’ve all heard that people buy first on emotion and then justify with logic. Well I’ve bought into this strategy without really knowing the science behind it.

The other day I was reading a book called The Da Vinci Method by Garret Loporto and discovered the science behind my dad’s remarks.

"Groundbreaking research in the field of neurocardiology has established that the heart is a sensory organ and a sophisticated information encoding and processing centre, with an extensive intrinsic nervous system sufficiently sophisticated to qualify as a ‘heart brain.’" J. Andrew Armour, M.D., Ph.D

It turns out that a little more than 60 percent of heart cells are actually neural cells that are identical to those found in the brain. They operate through the same connecting ganglia and use the same types of neurotransmitters found in the brain. And we thought the heart was just a muscle. Interestingly, it seems that your stomach also has neural cells that are identical to those in the brain and that’s why you get a ‘gut feeling’ (Thanks to Richard Mulvey for that gem).

In short, your heart literally has thoughts! Half of your heart’s neural cells process information from all over your body and keeps your body’s processes harmonised. The rest of your heart’s neural cells are connected with the emotional centres of your brain. – The Da Vinci Method.

So, it seems that we do think with our heart and savvy sales people in the know will make sure that they tap into the emotion first before going to the logic.

Jacques de Villiers is a sales training and influence expert in South Africa

Looking Sideways – An eccentric look at sales and marketing

Welcome to this week’s Looking Sideways. Here’s what’s in store for you in this issue

• Feature Article – Watch the Fox in the Hen House (all about sales managers)
• Advertisement – Influence and Persuasion Breakfast (only 15 seats left in Joburg)
• Endorsement – Read Sales Guru for brilliant sales strategies
• Video Clip – The Best Sales Meeting Ever – Glenngarry Glen Ross

Watch the Fox in the Hen House

In almost every company I consult to, I see that the sales manager has a personal target to meet over and above that of her team. This means that she has to personally go out and sell the companies goods and services.

I believe that this weak strategy is the Achilles’ heel that can incapacitate and destroy a sales team.

It leaves the rest of the sales team with the impression that they’re not getting a fair shake. Here’s how it looks:

• The sales manager is competing against the sales team. She has to walk her talk and be the top fox and therefore will viciously compete against the chickens in her team, breaking them in the process.
• The sales manager gets the best leads and doles out the anorexic ones, if at all (“I only give leads to closers” … “Coffee is for closers only”, Glenngary Glen Ross).
• The sales manager is more worried about looking good to her directors and feathering her nest than motivating the sales team to perform.

In my opinion, a sales manager should not get incentives from selling. She should be getting incentives as a result of the team selling. This means that she’ll pass on the best leads to the “closers”. Her only job is to serve the sales team … to make sure that it has the best training, the best resources, the best marketing and the best opportunities to sell. Her mission is to create the kind of environment that motivates and inspires the sales team to do great things.

Why does the company expect the sales manager to sell as well?

Typically, a sales manager is ‘promoted’ from the ranks. In other words, she’s a sales person herself … normally the best sales person in the team. She obviously doesn’t want to lose her clients and the resultant commission. So the company agrees that she can keep her clients to keep her sweet.

Clearly this is a flawed strategy on two fronts.

First, the sales manager becomes a competitor and not a collaborator in the team.

Second, the sales manager’s DNA is not mapped out to be a team player (the best sales people aren’t team players … they’re egocentric hunters that look out for number 1). Therefore, she’ll revert to type and default to looking out for number 1. Also, she’s probably not extremely systems driven or detail focussed and finds it hard to adapt to this constrictive environment. She’ll try and avoid this python around her neck and go out and sell, rather than commit to the role of a leader and manager. Where you put your focus is where you’ll get the results.

I suppose a sales manager that is snatched from the pool of sales people ends up like an eel trying to herd other eels (for those of you that do manage sales teams, you’ll know what I’m talking about – trying to keep a sales team on the same page is sometimes like trying to keep track of an attention deficit disordered eel).

I’ve no easy answer as to how to find sales managers that are team players and that know how to lead, motivate and inspire and that put the team first before ego.

First, nobody I know woke up in high school and said, “I want to be a sales manager.” (If they did, I say think again. Being a sales manager is one of the most stressful jobs around. You’re the ham between the sandwich … you have 80% of the sales team that just wants to have fun and sees you as a killjoy and you have a board or managing director looking over your shoulder shouting, “Where are the sales, where are the sales?” And, like a coach of a sports team … if your team doesn’t perform, you’re the first one bulleted, aren’t you?) Bit of a mugs game, I’d say

Second, nobody is going to hire a sales manager that hasn’t blooded herself with a sale. So, a sales manager typically comes from the sales trenches. This leads to the old adage of “familiarity breeds contempt”. First the sales manager is one of the sales team – a mate – and then suddenly she’s a sales manager giving orders. It is difficult for her to get her new subordinates on point so that they’ll support her. She’s waging a battle on many fronts.

What’s the answer? I’d put sales managers on serious leadership training, human relations training and “thick skin (resilience)” training and trust that an artist will emerge that can take the team forward. A sort of train em and hope for the best approach – not a satisfying answer. That’s because great sales managers are artists and seem to have the gift. They don’t know how to articulate that gift and certainly don’t seem to have a blueprint for success. Or do they? If you’re a sales manager, you’re welcome to comment (click on comment) on how you achieve success with your team. Here’s a guideline … if 80% of your sales team is not reaching its target, then it is not a successful team.

So, no, I don’t have the easy answer. But I do know this, if you make your sales manager a competitor, your team will head for disaster.

Jacques de Villiers is an influence and persuasion architect.

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Endorsement – Sales Guru

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Video Clip – The Best Sales Meeting Ever

Check out the best sales meeting ever from Glenngarry Glen Ross below.

Looking Sideways – An eccentric look at sales and marketing

When I look at how companies market their business it seems that most of them are stuck in a post-Kotler time warp of product, place, promotion and price.

The same old boring adverts, buying into their advertising agencies “its all about branding” song that has been a golden oldie since the 70s.
Our audience today is way more sophisticated than it was even 3 years ago. They want to interact and connect and don’t care how much we know until how much we care.
Below are three scenarios of how to engage our markets in a different way.

Estate Agents

Estate Agents are still putting their faces on dustbins to attract business. Not really where one want to position oneself … but it obviously still works. If it were me I’d try another strategy. Imagine if you wrote an e-book called “Are You Making These 10 Horror Mistakes When Buying Or Selling Your House?” You then advertised a free copy of the e-book in your local Caxton newspaper and asked people to send their email address and telephone number to get a copy. I figure that the people that would respond to this advert are either buyers or sellers of houses. Just phone them to thank them for downloading the e-book and find out how you can help them. I’d say this is a qualified lead.

Restaurants

A friend of mine recently ate at a new Primi Piatti in Chilli Lane, Sunninghill. Now Primi is on the cutting-edge of experience marketing and gets it right more often than not. My friend got 50% off his meal. Why? Because Primi was training its waiters and discounted the meal just in case the waiters didn’t get it right. What a concept and what a way to build a loyal client base. Imagine if your restaurant had a section where waiters were being trained and you got 50% off your meal if you sat in that section (profits are still going to be made on drinks, aren’t they?) At least you’d attract people that you normally wouldn’t and you’d be sure that your restaurant was full.

Billboards

At around R60 000 a month to advertise on a high-traffic billboard you want that advertising to work for you. Unfortunately, most billboards are just branding vehicles pushed by advertising agency (who walk out of the deal with a cool 16.5% every month). How’d you feel if your billboard really worked for you? Would it be helpful to be able to measure the results of your billboard advertising?

Let’s take the Guess clothing brand’s billboard campaign, for example. One typically sees an emaciated model wearing Guess jeans. And the tagline is Guess by Marciano. Imagine if Guess also had the following message … Go to www.guess.co.za and claim 20% off any purchase. Guess what? Guess fans and those that can’t afford the clothes (but want them) will go to the website.

Allow the website visitors to print out a voucher (20% off) which is redeemable at any outlet that stocks Guess. I guarantee that most Guess fans will go and purchase some clothing. And, not only will the department store move Guess, it will move other products as well as the buyer sees something else she likes.
Best of all for the Guess marketers is that they’ll be able to measure their billboard advertising campaign. If nobody takes them up on the offer, they may consider spending their advertising through another vehicle.

These are just some mind sparks to help you think out of the box about your future marketing efforts.

Jacques de Villiers is a sales training and sales consulting expert

Looking Sideways – An eccentric look at sales and marketing – Who is Sharliza?

I was paging through abou Time (Vol 5 No 2), the 1Time inflight
magazine on a flight to Cape Town, recently. An article by PR Worx, First Female Pilot For 1time Airline, caught my eye.

1time
Airline recently announced the addition of the first female pilot to
its ranks. Sharliza van Heerden is the first woman in 1time history to
pilot one of the airline’s aircraft.

The article was
disappointing in many respects, besides the fact that there still have
to be ‘firsts for women’ in this emancipated day and age. However, it
taught me a big lesson about one of the top influencing strategies used
by master persuaders. More about that later.

I’m curious to
find out more about Sharliza (unfortunately, the author didn’t even get
the basics of a good PR/news article right – what, when, where, why,
who and how. Ok, there was a "who" and a "what" in it. I wanted to know
a lot of things about Sharliza – what did she look like (no photo), how
long had she been flying, how old was she, was she hot or not, was she
single or married, is she Afrikaans or married to an Afrikaner, which
plane will she be flying and so on.

I thought that the author of this article really blew it. Until I
realised that the author had (by chance) tapped into a great persuasion
strategy - curiosity. It is one of the things that really makes us human. Most of us have a curious nature and need to slake it regularly.

1Time
had me. I needed to find out what Sharliza looked like and find out
more about her. By making your audience curious and leaving them with a
typical soap opera cliffhanger, you get them wanting more. The next day
I start my search. First stop www.1time.co.za – nothing. Second stop
www.aboutime.co.za – niks. By the way, check out the website and see
how the magazine is presented – it’s pretty cool. Third stop, type
Sharliza van Heerden into www.google.co.za – nada. It had an
opportunity to get me more involved in the human drama that makes up a
company like 1Time. It had a chance to turn me into part of its family.
Unfortunately, in this instance it really did blow it.

But, the learning for me was how quickly the article piqued my
interest and aroused my curiosity. Enough to spend 15 minutes searching
for Sharliza. Savvy marketers and sales professionals tell stories that
arouse intereset and curiosity – each step of the story leading the
audience to a final conclusion – Discovery.

Anyone got a photo of
Sharliza?

Jacques de Villiers is a sales training and influencing expert

 

I’ve always been a fan of reading and keeping up-to-date with both history and current affairs. I’ve noticed that a lot of writing in newspapers, magazines and brochures is tepid, thin and without substance. It’s almost as if there’s no intellectual body in it. I believe that this is as a direct result of journalists, public relations consultants and advertising copywriters not reading enough (of the right stuff).

“If you can’t read it’s a tragedy. If you won’t read it’s a crime” – source unknown to me

A recent radio advertising campaign on Radio 702 for the Villa Tuscana Wedding Village is a case in point.

The narrator says something to the effect, “ … we’ve declared UDI …”

I challenge you to find anyone under 35 who knows what UDI is.

I’m sure a key target market for this advertising campaign, are couples that are getting married – ages probably from 24 – 30.

The copywriter should have used the full meaning – Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Even then, unless you’re over 40 and know that there was a country called Rhodesia, you’d probably be scratching your head.

Of course in terms of Southern Africa’s political sensibilities, this may not have been the most politically correct phrase to use.

When Ian Smith and 11 ministers of what was then known as Rhodesia signed the UDI on November 11, 1965 it was condemned by the United Nations Security Council as a declaration of independence "made by a racist minority."

What’s to be done?

• Don’t assume that everyone knows what you’re talking about
• Be clear on who your target market is and aim your message at them
• Be knowledgeable about Southern African history so that one doesn’t make insensitive statements
• Get three different people from different generations to read your copy – Baby Boomers, X generation and Millennials so that you make sure they all get it

By the way, I’ve been to Villa Tuscana Wedding Village and it is outstanding. So, don’t let weak copywriting put you off.

Jacques de Villiers is a sales training specialist

This is one of my favourite pieces when it comes to getting my sales teams to raise their game.

A MESSAGE TO GARCIA  – ELBERT HUBBARD

In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain fastnesses of Cuba—no one knew where. No mail or telegraph could reach him. The President must secure his co-operation, and quickly. What to do!

Someone said to the President, "There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can." Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How "the fellow by name of Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days
landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the island, having traversed a hostile country on foot delivered his letter to Garcia—are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.

The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?" By the Eternal! There is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college in the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this or that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies; do the thing — "Carry a message to Garcia." General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias.

No man, who has endeavoured to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man – the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a tying and do it. Slipshod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, and half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant.

You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office—six clerks are within your call. Summon any one and make this request: "Please look in the encyclopaedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio." Will the clerk quietly say, "Yes, sir," and go do the task?" On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye,and ask one or more of the following questions:  Who was he? Which encyclopaedia?  Where is the encyclopaedia? Was I hired for that? Don’t you mean Bismarck? What’s the matter with Charlie doing it? Is he dead? Is there any hurry? Shan’t I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself? What do you want to know for? And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him find Garcia – and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not. Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your "assistant" that Correggio is indexed under the C’s, not in the K’s, but you will smile sweetly and say, "Never mind," and go look it up yourself.

And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this willingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting "the bounce" Saturday night holds many a worker in his place.

Advertise for a stenographer, and nine times out of ten who apply can neither spell nor punctuate—and do not think it necessary to. Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?

"You see that bookkeeper" said the foreman to me in a large factory. "Yes, what about him?" "Well, he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him to town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and, on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for." Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?

We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the "down-trodden denizen of the sweat shop" and the "homeless wanderer searching for honest employment," and with it all often go many hard words for the men in power. Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne’er-do-wells to do  intelligent work; and his long patient striving with "help" that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant we "help" that have shown their  incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, this sorting is done finer – but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go. It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best—those who can carry a  message to Garcia.

I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to  manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to anyone else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress, him. He can not give orders, and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, "Take it yourself."  Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular firebrand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot.

Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in your pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold the line in dowdy indifference, slipshod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry and homeless.

Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds – the man who, against great odds, has directed the efforts of others, and, having succeeded, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes.

I have carried a dinner-pail and worked for a day’s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; and all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous.

My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the "boss" is away, as well as when he is home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly takes the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets "laid off," nor has to go on strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks will be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town, and village—in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such; he is needed, and needed badly — the man who can "Carry a Message to Garcia."

Jacques de Villiers is a sales training and persuasion specialist in South Africa