This week I’m working in Seattle Washington and I love this city!!!
While working with a sales consultant today he had the chance to close a huge sale and all he had to do was tell a lie… The customer was ready to close on the $3,800.00 deal when all of a sudden the sales consultant realized the customer didn’t understand the offer… When he explained the offer to the customer again the customer realized they couldn’t afford that opportunity at this time and the sale was lost, or was it?

I applaud this sales consultant for realizing the customer didn’t truly understand the way the opportunity was laid out. The sales consultant may have lost the $3,800.00 sale but he’s gained a very loyal customer… There’s no doubt in my mind that he will close this opportunity or one even bigger with this same customer after the first of the year…

Think about the times you’ve had a situation like this happen to you and how it made you feel…
I don’t like feeling like I’ve been taken…

Here’s an example of what happened to me; I recently bought 2 Blackberry’s from a Verizon rep at a Best Buy store in Arizona. It’s important to point out that it wasn’t a Best Buy employee but an actual Verizon employee that sold me the Blackberry’s. I originally went in to buy 2 of the Envy phones with unlimited minutes & text. The Verizon rep asked me what I was looking for and I told him what phones I wanted and what plan I wanted… At the time the Envy was on sale for $79.00 and the Blackberry was on sale for $49.00.

He went on to present the Blackberry’s to me and when I stated I didn’t want the extra charges that went along with the Blackberry Service the Verizon rep said I should try it for 30 days and if I didn’t like it I could call customer service and turn it off… I thought that was fair, I could buy the 2 Blackberry’s and if I didn’t like the Blackberry features I could turn it off and just use it as a PDA with unlimited text and so on… Over the next couple of weeks I really liked the Blackberry as a phone and PDA but really didn’t see the value of the full Blackberry features for the price… So I went the full 30 days knowing I wanted to keep the Blackberry’s but realized I wanted to cancel the Blackberry service.

When I called Verizon to turn off the Blackberry service and just use the phone like a PDA they told me that couldn’t be done and that if I had discovered it within the first 30 days I could have traded in the phones… The Verizon rep at Best Buy LIED to me… Guess what; I got screwed… Now I’m stuck with a $275.00 per month cell phone bill for the next 19 months… And when I told Verizon who the person was by name and what they said and the promises the guy made they just blew me off with no concern like as if I was making it up… Now, if the Verizon sales consultant had treated me like the Sales Consultant I worked with today here in Seattle I would be writing happier things about my Verizon experience…

A great person once told me, “Cell Phone Sales People have taken the place of Used Car Sales People”… Now I believe this statement to be true…

I hate rewarding bad customer service with good referrals… Oh did I mention it was a Verizon Rep?
OK, I’m off my soap box… Wow, I feel better now…

The moral of today’s blog… Treat others as you would want to be treated and you’ll still have great sales and collect outrageous commissions…

Until next time I wish you continued success and prosperity,
Peter G’

Sales Consultants across the USA might be hearing this from their customers… When you hear this all day every day some sales consultants might start to “buy into it” and the next thing you know, your sales are down and you’re telling your sales manager, “The Economy is falling”…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling any sales consultants Chicken Little but I am asking every sales consultant to help every other sales consultant to stay away from this MINDSET…

The Wall Street Journal printed a story back in 2001 or 2002 (I Think) and the title of the story was, “Want to save the economy? Call out the sales people.” When I read this story I was totally inspired because it was true… Sales People stimulate the economy to grow… We sell what others need!!!

I was taught a long time ago not to pre-determine what your customer can afford or will spend… If someone is crying the “economy blues” some sales consultants might think this person can’t buy, but that’s not true… It simply means you haven’t shown them the value of what you’re selling… You might have tried to sell the “PRICE” of the product but you missed the features and benefits or the “WOW” factor of how your product can benefit their business and their customers too…

The next time you hear “The Economy is Falling…” Please take the time to present the value, the features and benefits, the ROI, the “WOW” factor… Take the time to help your customer to see the growth potential and not the “LACK” potential…

That’s the POWER we as Sales Consultants have… We can change the Economy!!!

Until next time I wish you continued success and prosperity…
Peter G’

Hey everyone, I realize we’ve been off the air for a few months but it’s been an amazing ride and I’ve been learning new and exciting things that I look forward to sharing with you all very soon…

The most important thing I’ve always known but has been proven even more than ever is to “take your samples out of the bag and let the customer touch them…”  I’ve been working in the field with Sales Consultants on the West Coast selling Blow Dryers and Straightening Irons and together with the sales consultants we’ve sold up to $10,000.00 a week simply by letting the stylists play with the tools… It’s been an awesome ride and I’ve enjoyed being out in the field…

There’s a lot more to come so stay tuned but until then I wish you continued success and prosperity…
Peter G’

There’s an old saying, “Plan your work and work our plan”… These are very true words…

It’s very important for sales consultants to get into the habit of creating a daily plan of where you’re going, who you’ll see and what you’re going to sell. Not having a plan could result in an OK day but having a plan with a goal in mind can create an unbelievable day for you…

After what I’ve seen in the field over the past 3 months I really want to emphasize how important it is to create a plan… Sure, you may have run your route for the past 5 years but take a good look at how you’ve been working your route… Are you prospecting new accounts, are you looking for their needs or are you just taking orders and maybe showing a few promotions as they become available to you?

Don’t let the economy get you or your salon owners down… Now is not the time to slow down; its time to get even busier with your salon owners…Sales Consultants are the answer to solving a poor economy… Sales Consultants are ones who can change the economy because it is through sales consultants that salon owners continue to buy and explore new products. By virtue of a salon owner being in business means the salon owner has to keep buying products and supplies for their business and along the way they will even buy something new to stimulate new business growth; if you show them how!!!… When a salon owner stops buying from sales consultants it’s an early indication of a salon business shut down…

Sales Consultant truly are the sustaining resource for the salon owners business. Show salon owners what you can do for them by being their sustaining resource for their business. Show them new products, discuss new retail and/or service promotions and teach them how to sell, teach them to be better business people. Sales Consultants by virtue of being in 30+ salons each week can see more of what’s working and what’s not working but your one salon owner only sees one salon a day, every day… They really need you guys!!!

So “Plan your work and work your plan!!!” Make everyday different… Don’t get into the habit of doing the same old stuff everyday… Look for anything and everything different to make your days in the field more stimulating for you and more prosperous for your salon owners…
After all; in the end we all win!!!

Until next time I wish you continued success and prosperity,
Good Luck everyone…
Peter G’

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to ride with a sales consultant in Tucson Arizona. If you’ve never been to Tucson I highly recommend you check it out. It’s a beautiful place with lots of history and plenty of fun things to do. OK, enough of the tourism commercial…

While riding with this sales consultant we visited two of his current customers, cold called on one target account and each time the sales consultant would say to me, “I’m only going to present this one promotion because I know they won’t purchase the entire line…”
OK, I listened to him at first because after all I was only there to observe and present my clients products but after 3 calls I asked him to trust me and to allow me 5 minutes to present my line. He hesitated at first but then he gave me his permission and said “only this one time because I don’t want to waste the owner’s time with products they’ll never carry…”

This is my truth and it doesn’t have to be yours but I believe it is easier to sell a $1,750.00 opportunity than it is to sell a $49.00 promotion. Now I know some of you might think I’m crazy but my experience has shown it is much easier to sell down in price and opportunity than it is to sell up in price and opportunity. When a salon owner purchases a $1,750.00 opportunity it comes with free goods, promotional materials, marketing materials, back bar products and several other silent sellers to help drive the sales of the new products out the salons front door. A $49.00 promotion is good but it’s just that; good… A $49.00 promotion won’t bring additional retail revenue dollars into a salon but a $1,750.00 opportunity will.

OK, back to the story… I went into the fourth account with the sales consultant; he made his presentation and then introduced me. I began to discuss what the product was, what it did, the ROI and then the cost followed by the ROI again… The salon owner stopped me, thought about it for about 2 minutes, then he went to the front of the salon where he measured his retail area and then spoke those golden words we all love to hear; “I’ll take it”… The sales consultant’s eyes bugged out at first and then he gathered his composure… Who doesn’t love to hear “I’ll take it”?
The sales consultant was blown away by this and, was even more blown away when we repeated the process three more times that same afternoon. Together we sold four $1,750.00 opportunities to four salons for a total of $7,000.00 in sales versus selling four $49.00 promotions for a total of $196.00 to those same four salons… Which amount would you rather be commissioned on?

Now don’t get me wrong the sales consultant I rode with was a very successful veteran sales consultant who over time became a prisoner of his own patterns. With all do respect to him he became a victim of his own limited thinking…
His daily actions became his daily habits…
His daily habits became his daily thinking…
His daily thinking became his daily belief system…
And his daily belief system said his customs would only buy $49.00 promotions from him…

The Moral; don’t try to guess what your customer will buy or what they can spend…

This is my truth and it doesn’t have to be yours; Think big… Make big presentations… Sell big and Commission big… If there’s no ceiling on your income why not shoot for the moon!!!
As long as what you are selling is truly going to benefit everyone and it is in the best interest of your customer; why would you deny your customer the opportunity to increase their retail dollar revenues by not selling them something new?

Remember; anything different is good…

Until next time I wish you continued success and prosperity,
Good Luck everyone…
Peter G’

Ever notice how some people tend to hang on to every little bad thing or negative event that happens in their life? They had a bad day, they hang on to it or they had a bad moment at work, they hang on to it or they had a customer say negative things to them and they hang on to those words like it was Gospel…

Life is too short for this… Learn to let go of the pain and hang on to the pleasures of life. When you have a bad day or a bad event look for the lesson and then let go of the event… Learn from the experience and then let it go!!!

I see too many people turning a simple Life Experience into a Life Sentence and they wonder why their life or their job sucks… This could become a career killer…

Life Experience or Life Sentemce… It’s your choice.

Until next time I wish you continued success and prosperity,
Good Luck everyone…
Peter G’

Can it really be true that if we FEEL what we want instead of THINKING what we want we actually receive it?
I believe it… For the past 90+ days I’ve fallen into my own mental trap, looking for what I wanted, THINKING about what I wanted and then getting mad because what I wanted wasn’t showing up.
Since I was getting mad because what I wanted wasn’t showing up this created CHAOS in my mental, Spiritual and physical life…
Before I go on let me give you the definition of CHAOS. CHAOS; extreme confusion or disorder… That’s exactly what I was FEELING and because it was what I was FEELING, I was  attracting more of what I was FEELING and that amplified what was going wrong in my life; I was FEELING the CHAOS so I was ATTRACTING more CHAOS into my life.
Even though I was THINKING about what I wanted, I was FEELING the “extreme confusion and disorder” of CHAOS because I wasn’t getting what I was THINKING about but I was getting what I was FEELING about and that was even more CHAOS…

Confused yet??? Once I realized I was doing this to myself it was like I was playing my own mind game of “Who’s on first?”… This was my wake up call…

Now I know the first part of this blog was confusing and I apologize for that but does it sound familiar to you? Have you experienced this? Spooky isn’t it???

I’ve studied many teachings and when the movie “The Secret” came out I was excited that everyone would be able to learn how to work with the Law of Attraction… The Law of Attraction is not a new law it’s one of hundreds of laws such as the Law of Gravity, the Law of Love, the Law of Nature, the Law of Giving and so on… I’ve been attracting things to me my entire life and my most recent attraction is my dog Chica. I’ve always wanted a dog but because I traveled I didn’t get one. Then the day came when I knew I needed to leave my previous employer and join my wife in our family business which meant I would be home more and that got me THINKING about having a dog… Once my mind started THINKING about having a dog I started to picture my two favorite dogs, Chihuahuas and Dachshunds.  OK, I admit it; I’m a big guy who likes small dogs… Anyway, I started to FEEL what it would be like to have a dog, taking the dog for walks, playing in the park or just hanging out together and all that FEELING resulted in my neighbor telling my wife they had to move and would I like their 6 month old Chihuahua/Dachshund mix named Chica? I was blown away; I was so excited to get this dog!!! Key phrase; I was so excited…

I love being in sales and providing great products to my customers. I love the FEELING of closing a sale, it’s awesome!!! I remember when the company I worked for was purchased by a bigger company and the bigger company started changing the way we did things, When the bigger company started to change things I became AWARE of my discomfort. Once I became AWARE my ability to close sales was diminished. I lost the FEELING of being a great salesperson because I got caught up in the THINKING of what I didn’t like. I was constantly THINKING about how I didn’t like the changes they were making, I didn’t like the micro-managing, I didn’t like my new boss, I didn’t like the new procedures, I didn’t like…, I didn’t like…, I didn’t like was all I was THINKING about which attracted more of what I was THINKING about and that created more CHAOS; “extreme confusion and disorder” .

This isn’t the type of person I am… I am a positive go getter, a winner, the best in my field so what happened to me? Well, I had a human moment… I forgot about one of the most important LAWS, the Law of Resistance which states; “What we resist persists”. The more I kept pushing IT, the more IT pushed back on me until I was exhausted and could no longer see the error of my ways.  WOW; who is this guy because this isn’t me, it couldn’t be me because that’s not how I THINK… See, I used the word think… I should have said this is not how I FEEL… I got so caught up in what I didn’t want that my thoughts (THINKING) became my FEELINGS and my FEELINGS became my ACTIONS and my ACTIONS became my REALITY and the REALITY was I was failing at what I LOVE to do because I became blinded to only what I wanted rather than enjoying the journey of change, discovery and growth…

So, as you go through your day consider what YOU TRULY WANT. See yourself as part of what you want… If you want to be the top sales person then see yourself closing the sales. Don’t see yourself closing the sales as if you’re watching a movie of yourself closing the sales, FEEL the FEELINGS of closing the sales. FEEL the FEELINGS of giving the pitch of a lifetime, FEEL the FEELINGS of seeing your customer engaging in conversation with you, asking questions and you’re giving the answers, FEEL the FEELINGS of hearing the customer say “yes, I’ll take it”, FEEL the FEELINGS of the closing handshake between you and your customer…

You see, I used to THINK that seeing myself as a winner and top sales person was all I needed to do but I was not correct; I needed to FEEL the FEELINGS of being a winner and a top sales person and once I started FEELING the FEELINGS I started to see the results I’ve always wanted… As George Castanza once said, “I’m back baby, I’m back.”

Here are two things I do to help me stay on track;
* I journal forward, I don’t journal what has happened to me that day I journal what I want to have happen that day. Then, at the end of the day I review my journal entries and most of the time what I wrote to have happen did happen. Once you’ve written what you want to have happen in your day, FEEL the FEELINGS of those things already happening. By doing so you’re already attracting those things to you before you even leave your house.
Write out your sales calls, what you want to sell, who you want to buy from you and so on.
Even if you have a difficult customer write out how you want the sales call go. Write out how easy going the customer is and how open minded they are to your ideas and products. FEEL the FEELINGS of love and ignore the temptation to ring their neck… hahaha (I had to throw that in)

* I also use post it notes in my car to remind me of the FEELINGS I want to have that day. This is a helpful reminder to remember what it is I truly want to FEEL and not what I what to THINK… It has been written that what you FEEL inside you is what is reflected around you… FEELING hate makes it easier to attract hate into your day. FEELING stress makes it easier to attract stressed out people into your day. FEELING mad makes it easier to attract mad people into your day… See where I’m going with this? Use your post it notes to remind you to FEEL success so you can attract more successful people and more successful outcomes into your day. FEEL the FEELINGS of love so you can attract more love into your life…

Until next time I wish you continued success and prosperity,
Good Luck everyone…
Peter G’

Retail Clean and Shuffle

Audio file - mp3 - Go ahead… listen…

I believe in “Old School” Selling techniques. It seems so much of the basic foundation of sales calls and selling techniques have been put on the back burner and replaced with “push back techniques” and “overcoming objections” or even “The Elevator Sales Pitch”.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with these techniques but whatever happened to interviewing the customer, getting to know them, building a rapport, developing trust, understanding and filling their needs, learning their goals, listening to what they really want? Whatever happened to the relationship part of selling?  

Not every sales consultant is doing this but I do see a lot of sales consultants being forced to make a minimum number of calls per day instead making qualitative sales calls resulting in greater sales… Who cares how many calls you’ve made? What really matters is how much did you sell? Did you see qualified customers in your day? Based on your salon profiles, did you plan what you were going to present at each salon? Did you get face to face with the decision maker? Did you create curiosity about your distributor, what your distributor offers and the brands you carry?  

Here are a few “Old School” selling tips I believe are still valuable in today’s sales consultant / salon owner relationship;
* Cold Call / profiling salons  
* Planning and preparation prior to walking in. Know what you want to present and be enthusiastic about it. Have a goal in mind before you enter the salon. Plan what you will take in with you and use it professionally.
* Believe in your products and more importantly believe in yourself. Have the Mindset of success!!!      
* Make sure you are speaking to the decision maker; not all salon owners are the decision makers.     
* Make your first question a show stopper… In other words they can’t answer it with a simple yes or no.      
* Interview the prospective buyer; let them feel you are a resource for them and not just a one-hit wonder.       
* During the interview take notes, build your information data base and use the notes to plan your future sales presentations or to present products and programs to overcome their current business challenges. 
* Take the “consultant” role from the beginning of the relationship.       
* Listen during the interview and don’t interrupt. Don’t sit there pretending to listen while your mind is loading the next question… Let them feel that you are listening and that you care.    
* Read their body language; 70% of the conversation is non-verbal.       
* Present your products in a clear and concise manner. Sell the products, not the education…       
* Plan ahead; be ready to present the ROI. Use it as hip pocket info but have it ready for the salon owner to hear.      
* ASK FOR THE SALE. This is a key part of closing but yet so few sales consultants ask for the sale.        
* Consistency – Whether you made the sale or not be consistent and continue to show up every 2 weeks. If you have made the sale it’s even more important that you are consistent with your weekly or bi-weekly sales calls.         
* This is my truth and it doesn’t have to be yours but when a customer tells me NO, it simply means I haven’t done my homework. I didn’t find out the key information needed to close the sale. With the exception of dating where NO does mean NO, but in sales no doesn’t mean no, it simply means try again. When I am served with a restraining order preventing me from entering the salon well then that really says NO to me…  

Until next time I wish you continued success and prosperity,
Good Luck everyone…
Peter G’  

Imagine… Starting every morning with the thought process of; “Today, I’m going to do something great” or “Today, I’m going to do just one thing differently” or, “Today I will excel at my career” or, “Today, I’m going to enthusiastically serve my customers and seek new ones, today I will soar to new heights!!!” 

I know some of you may think it sounds crazy but “What If” you gave it a shot? What if you said, “OK, I’ll take this guys goofy advice and I’ll work with it for 21 days just to see what happens…” 

This is my truth and it doesn’t have to be yours but if you expect to succeed; you will… If you expect to fail you will too… Either way your right, the trick is learning how to “Train the Brain” to remove the barriers that hold you back and to get over your past disappointments and make room for the good stuff!!! Learn to have the expectation of greatness for yourself; expect great clients, expect great sales, expect a great career, expect a great love, expect a great life, expect only greatness!!!James Author Ray has a saying, “Get Over It”. These are three of the best words to use daily when communicating with yourself… Get over it!!!  

The coolest, richest and most successful people in the world have fallen down many times but they used their strength to get back up again… They didn’t just lie there… They got up and they GOT OVER IT… 

Get rid of any small thinking in your head and replace it with thinking big.
Get rid of any bad feelings in your heart and replace them with feelings of greatness, joy, happiness, abundance, prosperity, increase and so on. As you may have seen in the movie The Secret, what ever it is you are feeling is a perfect reflection of what is in the process of becoming…  

Imagine yourself having everything you ever wanted; how does that feel?

Imagine yourself as the best sales consultant in the field; how does that feel?

Imagine yourself having more than enough all of the time; how does that feel? 

Albert Einstein wrote; “Imagination is everything; it’s the preview of life’s coming attractions.”I love that man, and I believe it too!!!

Use your imagination to see yourself doing great things… You can do it!!! Remember when you were a kid and you would use your imagination and pretend to be a pirate, or a cowboy, a musician or a ballerina? Back then you could actually see yourself aboard the pirate ship or dancing in a ballet in front of a large audience or you may even have played the air guitar on stage in front of hundreds of fans… hey man, I still play my air guitar!!!

The point; use your imagination and use it often. Learn to pretend as you did as a child, act the part, fake it until you make it, play your air guitar loud and proud but most importantly have fun while you’re doing it!!! 

Don’t wait or worry about what might happen; go out there and create the life you really want to live… 

Until next time, I wish you continued success and prosperity…
Good Luck everyone…
Peter G’