The next article features a transcript with business coach Clay Clark, US Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year, and Mickey Michalec, 7-foot pharmaceutical sales rep, talking about why nobody wants to do sales on one of the most affordable business schools in Florida, Thrive15.com!
Clay Clark: Well, let me ask you this, point four here. Again, we’re talking about one of my favorite topics as a business coach, in sales, something no one wants to do, but everyone has to do. Fifteen percent of salespeople make 85% of the money. It seems like this is something that Jerry Vass, the author of Soft Selling in a Hard World, this is what he says, At your next sales meeting, with 20 people, if you’re watching, maybe you have two people in your meeting, or 10, or whatever the number is. He says, At your next sales meeting with 20 people, three will take home the money of 17 others. Is it luck, hard work, a great attitude? Or is it persuasive skill, understanding the transactional dynamics of the sales process? From your experience, do you always see that, where there’s like one sales guy that’s got more than enough business, and then nine other guys looking around going, What’s going on? I mean, have you seen that?
Mickey Michalec: I do. I do. I think there’s a flow and there’s a chart to that where people start out and they’re very will versus skill. They have the will and the desire they learned from a business coach. They want to do it. Then they start to develop that skill. Then that skill takes over, but over time they lose the will because they get bored and all of a sudden they jump back where they have more skill then they have the will. It’s the opposite of what they were at the beginning where they didn’t have the skill, but they had the gumption and the want to.
Clay Clark: What are some of the common mistakes that most bad sales professionals are doing over … I mean, it doesn’t matter what company you’re working with, if it’s in landscaping, pharmaceutical sales, if it’s in dentistry, if it’s in entertainment, whatever you’re selling, what are the mistakes that you see? Because you coach people in sales. What are some things that you see over and over and over that bad … not bad people, but bad sales performers are doing over and over?
Mickey Michalec: The one that sticks out to me the most is the guy that says, What I do doesn’t matter for what I make. It’s somebody that doesn’t believe in the system. I can go call on 50 doctors, but they know who they’re going to pay. It doesn’t matter. They’re going to pay who they want to.
Clay Clark: Dissociative sales guy and business coach.
Mickey Michalec: They don’t think that they have a direct influence on what they make. That person has almost burned that bridge.
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Clay Clark: I’ve even seen doctors like that, though. I mean, doctors are like, Well, people are going to see what doctors they want to see. That’s not true, though.
Mickey Michalec: No.
Clay Clark: There’s doctors out there just killing it on … and there’s other ones that are just struggling.
Mickey Michalec: I don’t need to advertise because what I do will bring the people, or because of what I do, they’re going to come no matter what, or they’re going to go to him because he has a flashy office.
Clay Clark: Waiting for the phone to ring.
Mickey Michalec: Exactly.
Clay Clark: Now, if you learn from a business coach … Jerry Vass says here, If you learn a profession well and work hard, your future is secure, and you will inevitably rise to the top, drive a fast car, and find beautiful people of the opposite sex pursuing you relentlessly. Like so many romantic promises, this is an illusion. What your parents and professors don’t tell you is that the closer you get to the top, the better you must know how to sell, because everyone at the top sells better. If you’re going to be at the top of your profession, you must sell well, too. What he’s saying is, this whole idea that if you go to college and you get good grades, then you’re just going to make a lot of money, get a nice car, people love you. But that really is not the case. You have to learn to sell, if you want to get to the top. Right?
Mickey Michalec: Yeah.
Clay Clark: From your perspective, if I’m an entrepreneur, watching this, and I am on fire in my given skill, I mean, I am the best computer programmer, I am awesome, I mean, people want to hire me to do artwork, I’m the best artist, I’m the best dentist, I’m the best whatever my skill is, and I can’t sell anything. What would you tell me to do right now?
Mickey Michalec: I would tell you to find somebody that can sell, and learn the techniques of what they’re doing, because if you could learn your trade and become the best at what you can do, that means that you can be educated and you can learn another skill.
Clay Clark: Now, you think in six weeks someone can learn this?
Mickey Michalec: I think you can. I think if you put the effort in, if you tell me that I took every day in my available time, and I put it in to try to learn this skill, all you’d have next is the attitude to go out and put it in place.
Clay Clark: That’s what I love about sales, though. Because if I took six weeks and I focused on learning the piano, I’d be irritated and I’d still be pretty bad. You know?
Mickey Michalec: Yeah.
Clay Clark: But like with sales, you can learn it from a business coach. I’ve seen it over and over and over again. It’s like, if you have a functional brain and you want to learn how to do it, you can.
Mickey Michalec: Yeah. When someone tells you no, guess what, that’s a way I don’t need to do that again. They’ve given you the answer to the test. If it’s a multiple choice test, we have A, B, C, and D, someone says no on A? Guess what, don’t do A again. Now you only have it down to B, C, and D. Someone tells you no again? Hey, get rid of letter B. That’s not the option now. Now we’re down to C and D.