It's all about attitude but it's not what you're thinking

I am watching an NCAA men's basketball game. The ball gets tipped away from the guard bringing it across the center line and there's a pileup as several players dive for the ball. Dickie V says,

"Look at the All American getting down on the floor! The hustle, the drive! You know, Bill, he has such a good attitude on the basketball floor."

What does he mean?

An account manager gets called into the sales manager's office for a performance review. The sales manager says,

"I don't understand your attitude lately. You've been coming in late. Your desk is a mess. You seem to be keeping to yourself and you're awfully quiet."

Does the account manager have a bad attitude? How can you tell?

Coaches, advisers, parents - they all love a positive attitude but how do you get one and how do you keep it? Does it mean that you have to be perpetually positive even in the face of real tragedy?

It could have been worse!

Everything happens for a reason!

It takes 47 muscles to frown but only 3 to smile!

For me, the most instructive definition of attitude is that used by aviators. The attitude of a plane is the measure of the plane's positive or negative angle relative to the horizon. If the pilot is trying to take off, the attitude of the plane must be above the horizon line. The plane is climbing and that is good! Conversely, when the pilot wishes to land the plane, she must point the nose below the horizon line so that the plane descends. The plane is descending and that is good!
In aviation, attitude is relative to the horizon line. In sales, attitude is relative to the seller's goals. We believe that a seller is more likely to achieve his goals if he has a positive demeanor, if he is exhibiting the behaviors consistent with sales achievement (making calls and setting up presentations), if he is interacting productively with support personnel, etc. When we witness something other than that, we label the seller as having a bad attitude.

Not so fast.

Have you ever been on an airplane that suddenly changes course? The pilot points the nose down and descends rapidly for five or six seconds. Your assumption is that the plane is no longer attempting to achieve its goal of landing in Phoenix and you decide that this is bad. The nose is pointed down before landing and we are descending. This is a bad attitude. But, what if the pilot just learned that another airplane was at the same altitude as his plane and he descended quickly to avoid a collision? You wouldn't want him to keep the same attitude relative towards the goal of landing in Phoenix and crash the plane in mid-air! You didn't have all the information but you still made a decision about attitude.

Back to our seller. As it turns out, the seller just found out that his baby needs to stay in the hospital after a difficult birth. He is upset and is dealing with a personal tragedy. When you see him, he is sullen and withdrawn. His long term goal of being the very best sales person in the organization, the goal against which his attitude is normally measured, has been replaced with a short term goal of trying to keep his wife from becoming unglued. The short term goal has taken the precedence of the long term goal and the behaviors of the sales person have changed. However, his attitude - the direction of his behavior relative to the most important goal in his life - has not changed. He knows that he has to fix the problem at home in order to be able to focus on work once again. Nothing about what he is going through changes his desire to be the very best sales person in the organization.

Great sales people come in all shapes and sizes. Some smile all the time and some do not. Some are back slappers and others tend to keep to themselves. All of them have a great attitude. In order to discover this you first need to have an understanding of the seller's short and long term goals.

Tips for sales managers:

1) Get to know your sellers as intimately as possible. What is going on in their lives that might occasionally take precedence over work?
2) Be quick to ask how you can help but not quick to judge a seller's attitude based on her demeanor.
3) Let it be known that experiencing human emotions in the work place is okay with you. When seller's realize they can have a range of emotion they are more trusting of management and more willing to let you know how to help.
4) Discourage gossiping between sales people about each other by refusing to participate. Answer all questions that sound like, "What's his problem?" with "I'm not sure he has a problem but if he does, I sure would like to help."
5) Never acuse a proven seller of having a bad attitude. Ask the proven performer if there are obstacles that you can help remove. Encourage a little self-analyzation - "What could you be doing differently to get a better result?"

The "I'm not really selling you something technique"

I love to watch sales people in action because it teaches me about what works and what doesn't. This week was instructive because two different sellers attempted the "I'm not really selling you something technique". One was successful and one was embarassing in his futility.

The doorbell rings and I can see through the glass that there are two people on the front porch. Since we weren't expecting anyone and no one in his right mind drops by our house for an unannounced visit (when you tell us you're coming we give the children a mild sedative) I knew that there were salespeople on the front porch. Cool!

I open the door and two nicely dressed folks are standing a respectful distance from the door. I stand in the doorway and say, "Hello."

The gentleman introduces himself and his colleague but doesn't mention the name of the company they are representing. They are dressed in suits and the man who has taken the lead is carrying a small leatherbound portfolio. Here's what he says,

"We are letting folks know that we are going to be doing some work in the neighborhood just in case you see us around. Some of your neighbors have hired us to do some work on their homes and we're just letting you know that our trucks are going to be in the neighborhood. We don't want to get in your way or anything so we thought we should let you know."

"Okay. Thanks for letting me know."

"No problem. No problem. We're just going to be in the neighborhood. I am wondering if your house needs any work done."

"Like what?"

He pulls out a laminated sheet and hands it to me and says,

"We specialize in gutters, windows and siding. Which of these do you need help with?"

"None of the above."

"Really? Well, that's good. That's good. The house is in tip top shape. Well, if you do need any work done, please give us a call at Taylor Construction."

We'll analyze that sales call in a second. Two days later we are finishing dinner when the phone rings. My wife looks at the caller ID and its says P and P. Since the number is local, I suggest that she answer it and she does.

"Hello."

"Hello, is this Mrs. Rohrer?"

"Yes."

"My name is Pete and I'm with P and P painters. We are going to be in your neighborhood tomorrow doing some work for your neighbors and I am wondering if we could provide you with a free estimate while we're nearby."

"Do you do interior or exterior painting?"

"Both, actually."

"Hold on one moment." At this point, my wife puts her hand over the phone and asks if I would like a free estimate on painting the house. Painting the exterior of the house is something we've been talking about for a couple of months. I say, "Yes."

"Pete, we'd love to get a free estimate on an exterior paint job."

"That's great. Oh, shoot. We are going to be in the neighborhood tomorrow but we don't have anyone who can do estimates. Would it be okay if we came out Monday afternoon?"

"Yes, that's fine. See you on Monday."

Both of these sales calls are great examples of the "I'm not trying to sell you something technique". This technique has gained favor as more and more sales people learn that nobody wants to be sold something. So, they try to sell you something by pretending at first that they aren't there to sell you something. They kind of sneak up on you. Unfortunately, for sales people, prospects are familiar with this technique because it was first mastered by street beggars in major cities and then adopted by religious proselytizers.

Just because a technique is well known by prospects, doesn't mean that it can't be effective. Like an old card trick or a favorite joke, it can still manage to provide enough amusement to be inoffensive. That assumes, of course, that the initial message of deceit is reasonably sensible.

In the first example, the people who came to my door were being ridiculous. First, they don't identify the company they represent - which makes my mind wander as I'm trying to guess what they are selling. Second, I'm supposed to believe that a company is sending messengers door to door in my neighborhood to let me know that they are going to be working in the area "just in case I saw their trucks"?! Furthermore, the company is sending these messengers to assure me that they don't want to inconvenience me or get in my way. Huh? Unless you are working on the road or you're taking down giant trees and need to block the road, how are you going to be in anybody's way? The premise is absurd and I am not amused.

In the second example, the seller identifies himself right away. By being upfront about who he is, he has earned the right to throw a sales technique at us. P and P is going to be in the neighborhood and would like to provide a free estimate. Nicely done. Of course, I know that all estimates are free and that every painter within 50 miles of my house would come out and give me a free estimate whether they were doing work in the neighborhood or not. But, somehow what Pete is saying makes sense. Why not cluster your prospecting near your existing customers? Shoot, Pete is going to be in the neighborhood so is it okay if he just "pops by"? Since we are interested in painting our house, getting a free estimate from someone who is going to be in the neighborhood anyway is a no brainer. You see, Pete knows that his proximity to our house while on a job reduces the amount of pressure I feel about responding to his estimate. Think about it. If I had called him and made an appointment for the estimate and he had to send a man out on a special sales call there is going to be some pressure for me to hire them. But, since he is in the neighborhood. . .

The best thing about Pete's call is that after my wife agrees to let him come on by while he is in the neighborhood, Pete fesses up that he can't really make it on Saturday. Now, did Pete know that before he called? Was he being a little bit slick by saying that he was just going to "pop by"? Yes and Yes.

But, so what. Sales isn't about telling the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Sales is about trying to getting in front of "now" buyers, discovering their needs and then offering solutions. Your solutions have to be honest and your work has to have integrity but if you need a technique or two to get the appointment - that's cool.

Just be upfront about who you are and prospects will give you a chance to show them your moves.

Managing the "in-between" time

I am stuck in traffic in Atlanta. Again.

Up ahead, I can see that the traffic light is green. A cursory count of the number of cars in front of me puts the number at about twenty-five. I sigh because I know that I'm not getting through the intersection for another cycle of the light.

But, wait! Twenty-five cars is less than 500 feet of distance between me and the light. Even at only 10 mph, I can travel 500 feet in thirty-five seconds. The light is timed for one minute of green. Why can't I make the light?

The answer is simple and frustrating. If everyone were paying attention to the light and started to move forward as soon as the light turned green, all of us would be going at least 10 mph within a couple of seconds. Not only would the 25th car in line make it through the intersection, the 35th car in line would make it, too. Life would be good and Atlanta would be a fine place to drive. But, the 25th car doesn't make it through the light and life is not good on the streets of Atlanta.

The reason why the 25th car doesn' t make it through the light is that not everyone starts to go at the same time. The car in the front of the line goes and then the next car goes. But, in between the time the first and second cars start, there is a lag. The "in-between" time. The time the second driver waits to make sure the first driver has seen the light turn green and is going. The in-between time is repeated for each car until the 25th car in line is waiting thirty to forty seconds before moving at all! The light is green. You can see it. But, you aren't moving because the guy in front of you isn't moving. The in-between time has made it impossible for you to achieve your goal of making it through the intersection in one cycle of the light.

In order to achieve one's goals in sales, one must sell more stuff to existing customers or find more customers. Busy sales people often find this difficult because there is only so much time in the day. We often hear that the most successful sales people are working deep into the night and on weekends in order to achieve their income goals. If this isn't practical or desireable, let me suggest that you start doing a better job of reducing your own "in-between" time.

Here are some tips for outside sales people:

1) Geographically cluster your sales calls. If you drive around a metro area like Atlanta to make your calls, there is no sense in making one call in the north and then another one in the south and a third one in the east. Cluster your calls so that you are making as many calls in one geography as possible before moving on to the next.
2) Be prepared to do business wherever you are. Sometimes traffic considerations cause us to schedule calls three hours apart when we know the call only takes an hour and the drive time to the next is only thirty minutes. We do it because of the uncertainty of both those estimates and the need to be on time to the next call. Perfectly understandable. What is not acceptable, though, is to sit in your car reading a newspaper as you wait for the appointment time to roll around. Carry a list of folks that you need to call with you. Always have your laptop with you. Be prepared to work during any in-between time that you have inadvertently created.
3) Develop very good relationships with the administrative and other support personnel back at the office. When circumstances conspire to keep you out of the office, you may need something from your desk or files. You can get work done through other people but only if you made them a part of your team.

Here are a couple of tips for inside sales people:

1) Leave the administrative work for the hours when you can not reach customers. If you are calling customers and being productive and everything is going along smoothly, you need to keep making calls. The last thing you'll want to do is to stop talking to customers in order to put together some presentation materials that need to be mailed to a prospect. Some sales people like to do everything that needs to be done for a particular prospect before moving on to the next, but this creates in-between time.
2) Schedule breaks for yourself. Working the phones or the internet or the e-mail can be tedious. If you schedule five minutes per hour to stretch your legs or to get a drink or to chat with your neighbor, you'll be more productive during the next 55 minutes. When inside sales people try to plow through two or three hours of super productive work, they invariably end up creating more in-between time when they become mentally and emotionally drained.
3) Maintain an accurate pipeline. Nothing reduces in-between time like knowing which are the most important prospects to call first.

If he could only learn to use his talent

What are we to make of people who are said to have "all the talent in the world" but somehow don't seem to win? If you watch sports, like I do, then you hear it all the time. Recently, during the Daytona 500 telecast, one announcer declared that a certain driver was "as talented a driver as we have on the track" but hadn't yet won a race.




And have you heard the tale of Tiger Woods walking through the clubhouse after a round? John Daly is sitting at the bar having a beer and he calls out to Tiger,




"C'mon and join me one time. Forget about the weight room for once and just have a beer with me."




Tiger is reported to have said, "If I had your talent, John, I wouldn't need to hit the weight room," as he headed to the locker room.







Is it possible that John Daly has more talent than Tiger Woods? That, of course, depends on how one defines talent. In golf, most people would think that the most talented golfer is the one who is the best "ball striker". That is, he can hit the ball in the center of the club face nearly 100% of the time. He can carry the ball the right distance and make adjustments to his swing in order to make the ball fly on a different path. But, on the PGA tour, this describes nearly everyone. There must be something more going on that helps explain why Tiger Woods won 7 out of the 16 events he entered last year and John Daly won zero.







The "something more" is the new definition of talent that has been discovered by The Gallup Organization. Gallup defines talent as "any recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied." (p. 48 Now, Discover Your Strengths). Gallup went on to define and name all of the talents of humans. For a complete list of the talents and a description of each, please read the book by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton.



We all know intuitively that talent is a recurring pattern of behavior. Success at golf requires one to be able to repeatedly swing the golf club so that the ball is struck in the center of the face. Success in motorsports requires one to repeatedly choose the right line on the track and to make good decisions about when to pass and when to draft. In sales, it's important to repeatedly make presentations to qualified prospects. But, as pointed out already, at the highest levels all the participants can do those things. What is at play that allows certain golfers and certain drivers and certain sellers to excel?



The answer lies in the other part of the definition of talent - "any recurring pattern of thought, feeling. . . that can be productively applied." Ask any professional analyst the reason why Tiger excels and they will tell you that it is his mental focus. They compare Tiger's ability to shut out distractions and hit the required shot under pressure to that of Jack Nicklaus. No wonder that one is the all time champ in major victories and the other is the greatest golfer the world has ever known. So, Tiger's talent is not just his ability to hit the ball correctly but also his ability to focus on exactly what is required in the moment.



John Daly doesn't have this talent and therefore, it is incorrect to say that John Daly is as talented a golfer as Tiger Woods.



At the highest levels of NASCAR, a driver needs the ability to communicate effectively with his crew chief. He must be able to describe exactly how the car feels so that the chief can direct the pit crew to make adjustments to the car when it comes in for a pit stop. So, the most talented driver is the one that can choose lines and make decisions as well as the other drivers but who can also communicate the nuances of the mechanics of the car to another person over the radio while driving 180 mph!!



When we start to think of talent in this way, it is much easier to understand why there are dominant performers among even the most physically gifted.



In sales, the critical nature of repeating thoughts and feelings, as well as behaviors, is as important to excellence as in the sports examples above. The very best sellers are able to put rejection behind them quickly and focus their efforts on making the next sales call. The very best sellers experience the negative feelings that go along with rejection as much as the average seller but they put another feeling in its place more quickly. The link between positive thoughts and success in sales is well documented. So, it's consistent to describe the most talented sellers as the ones most capable of repeated positive thoughts.

In sales, it is not enough to be persuasive or to be charismatic. Successfully repeating those behaviors will help you achieve some level of success. But to reach the highest levels, sellers must be able to repeat thoughts and feelings as consistently as the top achievers in sports.

What Have You Got?

Consultative selling is just about the only kind of selling anyone talks about anymore. We don't push products - we solve problems. We don't sell stuff - we form partnerships.

I realized how far the pendulum had swung the other day when a sales manager told me that his team is trained to find the customer's "pain points". Sales people as doctors! Brilliant!

Don't get me wrong, learning about the customer's business and creating customized solutions that meet their objectives is exactly the right way to sell. But, customers don't have time to teach every sales person how their business operates so that the sales person can go back to the office and whip up a customized proposal. Customers expect sales people to know quite a bit about their business before they walk in the door. Not only that, but they expect to see the skeleton of a possible solution at the same time.

Back in the early 90's when I was first learning how to sell radio advertising, the mission was all about the consultative sale. I was trained to seek out the business owner or high-level decision maker and let them know that I wasn't a radio sales person but had been transformed, through 24 hours of training over three days, into a media consultant. My job was to sit down with them and ask a series of questions designed to elicit their two or three most important marketing objectives. Armed with this information, and their ad budget, I could put together a whiz bang proposal.

Here is how it would usually go in real life:

I would go out prospecting and walk into a paint store. Seeing a man on a ladder stocking paint I would approach and say, "Hi, I'm looking for the person in charge of advertising."

"Hi, I'm Bill, the owner."

"Hey, Bill. My name is Tim and I am with Magic 96 radio. Based on research that I have done on paint stores, I am very confident that advertising on my radio station would benefit your store. I would like to talk to you about that and explore ways that we can help you achieve your marketing goals."

Then, Bill would say something that the training had not mentioned. He would say,

"What have you got?"

What have I got? Did Bill expect me to pull out a ready-made advertising schedule? With whom did he think he was dealing? Some sales schlep straight out of the 70's?

So, I would say,

"Bill, what I've got is a customized approach to solving your problems. We'll sit down so that I can learn about your business. With this information I can go back to the station, convene a meeting of our brightest people, and customize a unique solution just for you. When can we sit down for about 45 minutes or so?"

We were taught never to ask for an hour because that seemed like a long time. Forty-five minutes, on the other hand, was just a little longer than a half hour and everybody has a spare half-hour.

I'll tell you what seemed like a long time, though and that was the time it took me to say the last three sentences in that little monologue. That's because it was inevitable that after the first sentence, the business owner's eyes would start to glaze over and he began to dream about the joys of stacking paint cans. (I remember one guy's eyes started to roll back into his head and I was afraid he was going to pass out when his phone rang and startled him back to consciousness).

Honestly, my intentions were good and the training that taught me how to engage a business owner in a conversation about the specifics of their business was the right idea. The problem then and now is that nobody has 45 minutes or 30 minutes or even 15 minutes to sit down with every Tom, Dick and Jane sales person to explain to them where it hurts.

So, after being asked "What have you got?" a dozen times or so and delivering the same coma inducing speech and getting nowhere, I improvised.

Now, after "What have you got?" I used this approach:

"Bill, I specialize in creating customized marketing plans for all of my customers. However, I know that you need some idea of what my product costs and the scope of our abilities. In my briefcase, I have a couple of examples of the work that I have done. I will show them to you as a conversation starter as long as you agree not to think that this is what I am proposing for you because I don't know yet what to propose for you. Is that fair?"

In every single case, Bill and every other decision maker agreed that this was fair and I pulled out the proposals that I kept with me all the time. These proposals, of which there were usually three, indicated a range of costs from reasonable to I'm-going-to-buy-a-new-boat-with-these-commissions. The one thing they had in common was that all had actually been purchased by someone and they all worked. That is, the customer who had made the purchase had done business with us again because they were satisfied with their return on investment.

The answer to "What have you got?" is now a conversation starter. What is the conversation about? The decision maker's business, of course.

Let's say that none of the three proposals struck a nerve with my decision maker. My final gambit was this:

"As I mentioned earlier, Bill, I customize unique marketing solutions. These programs don't seem to fit your needs. Before I came in here, I did some thinking about some of the most likely challenges you are facing. I thought of an idea and I am willing to share it with you under one condition."

"What condition?"

"The idea is only half-baked. I don't have all the details worked out and, in fact, I dont' even know if it can actually be done in the form I am thinking about. I will tell you what it is to see if you like it and to work with you to shape it into a workable program. My condition is that you have to be ready for the possibility that the idea can't actually be done since I haven't dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's."

"That's fine. Let's hear the idea."

Of course, I always had an idea before pulling this little stunt but the idea didn't have to be anything earth shattering. It just needed to have a some thought behind it and it had to make sense for the business to which I was presenting. Inevitably, if the decision maker didn't like the idea, I would get an appointment to brainstorm some other ideas.

Sales people who walk in cold off the street have zero credibility. No business decision maker is going to stop what they are doing to explain the way their business works in order for that seller to work on a proposal to establish her credibility. However, business decision makers are looking for solutions to their problems. They will do business with credible sale people. The trick is to establish one's credibility without asking the decision maker to do a lot of work to get you up to speed.

The easiest way to do that is to be prepared to answer the question: "What have you got?"

For Best Results - Stay in the Box

"You've got to think outside the box!" This is the rallying cry that unites sales organizations across America.

Sales are down? Think outside the box!

Leads are drying up? Think outside the box!

Sounds great but what does it mean and how do I do it? I'll tell you what it means but let me implore you to please stop doing it - at least for a little while.

Back in the early 90's there was a popular puzzle that showed a square made of 3rows of dots. The idea was to connect all the dots by drawing four straight lines without lifting one's pencil from the paper. Seminar organizers delighted in showing this puzzle to a bewildered audience. The trick, as you've probably already discovered, is that your lines must extend beyond the boundaries of the square so that instead of drawing lines that are perpendicular, you have angled lines to connect the dots in the middle of the puzzle.

When you extended the lines beyond the boundaries formed by the dots, you were thinking "outside the box". Brilliant!

While the coining of this phrase was not nearly as exciting an event as the invention of the foam rubber tomahawk (which happened at roughly the same time) the puzzle was fun and the message was clear: being constrained by old ways of thinking limits one's abilities to solve problems. Organizations needed to become more creative as challenges became more daunting.

Unfortunately, just as one can have too many foam rubber tomahawks, one can take the notion of creativity too far. For the most part, sales people don't need to think outside the box.

Here's what sales people and sales organizations should focus on:

1. Have a complete understanding of your product or service. What does it do? Whom does it help? What can't it do? What does your competitor's product do better than yours?2)
2. Identify your target audience. Each of your products and services is perfect for someone, good for others, ineffective or meaningless or a poor value to all the rest.
3. Perfect your unique selling proposition. You must be able to explain the reasons why your solutions are unique to your company.
4. Compile a list of all "perfect" and "good" prospects. Be honest. Do some research and if someone doesn't need what you sell, don't waste your time trying to convince them otherwise.
5. Call on those prospects. If a prospect is perfect for your company, you must never give up. Never giving up on the perfect prospect is far more productive than dreaming up creative reasons why a fringe prospect should consider buying from you.

This is about as "in the box" as you can get. There is nothing creative about it. Football teams would refer to it as "blocking and tackling".

I guess there isn't anything sexy about a rallying cry that declares, "Let's do more blocking and tackling!"

But, that is what is needed during tough times.

The Best Added Value is. . .

I had been working as an account manager at Magic 96 radio in Charlotte, NC for a few months when I inadvertently taught myself a valuable lesson.

The first Gulf War was raging and the economy was sputtering along. The advertising market was hurting. Every day was another story about how Giant Advertiser was not going to renew or Massive Car Dealer was going to cut back. Our new General Manager, Dick, had decided to gather the sales team three times per week instead of the usual two times. The purpose of the third meeting was to review activity. Each account manager would take turns talking about their pending business and their most recent results. Sometimes we would commiserate about losses and other times we would examine wins to determine if there was an opportunity to leverage some advantage that had been uncovered by a recent success.

Most of the sales team hated these meetings because everyone's work was laid bare. If you weren't working very hard, everyone would know it. If you had lost four deals in a row and could offer no explanation other than "everyone else was cheaper" the meeting was painful. Personally, I loved these meetings. I was a rookie and there were no expectations that I was going to contribute much to the top line revenue. As a consequence, there was no pressure on me, other than the pressure I put on myself. So, the meetings were great because I was learning about how to sell advertising and I was learning about the behaviors of sales people. Plus, I was learning about how the economy was impacting our position versus how it impacted other radio stations.

I had been working on a deal with a boat dealer. Our radio station was very good at reaching adults between the ages of 35 and 54. We tended to have more men than women and our audience generally made good money. I had no doubt that we could sell boats for the dealer to whom I had been speaking. The deal had progressed to the point where it was time for the prospect to make a commitment. Although I was new, I had closed several deals and I knew that this one was ready to close.

Our third sales meeting of the week was on Thursday and I wanted to go into it with a sale. So, I called my prospect at about 8:15 a.m. to get his approval right before the 8:30 a.m. meeting time. After exchanging pleasantries, I said,

"Bob, we've met a couple of times. The first meeting was dedicated to me finding out about your business. We talked about your typical customer and we discussed the kinds of advertising you've been doing that work and those things you've been doing that don't appear to be working. During our second meeting, we talked about the capabilities of my radio station and I presented a proposal for a radio campaign. Together, we made a couple of changes to the campaign and when I left you asked me for some time to review the plan with your partner. Today is the day that I had circled on my calendar for getting back with you and I am calling to get your commitment."

"Yes, all of that is true but I'm not sure we're moving forward quite yet."

"Really, are there additional questions that need to be answered or some concern that we didn't address."

"No, what happened was that I had a little party at my house the other day. One of my wife's friends owns a business and she and I got to talking. She told me that she advertises with WRFX and suggested that I should, too."

"Bob, WRFX is a great radio station that is right for many advertisers. Magic 96 is the right station for you."

"I don't know, Tim, they are the #1 ranked radio station in town. Plus, they have John Boy and Billy. That morning show is huge. Tell me, what do you have that they don't have?"

By now, account managers were starting to assemble in the conference room. I was worried that not only wasn't I going to have a sale to tell them about, but that I was going to have a loss! I was ticked. I had busted my butt to put together a killer program for him. The campaign was within his budget and there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that we were going to sell boats.

What did we have that WRFX didn't have? I could only think of one thing.

"Bob, there is only one thing I can think of that we have that they don't. That is me. I work for Magic 96 and when you buy this campaign you get me. What that means is that I will make sure your commercial is produced to our highest standards. I'll play it for you before it airs and if you want to make changes, I'll get them done quickly. I'll personally take your schedule to the traffic department and make sure that your commercials are placed in our best available time slots. I will call you during the campaign to make sure that you are getting the response you expected and if you're not, I'll do everything in my power to make adjustments to improve the response. When the campaign is over, you'll get an accurate and timely invoice along with the scripts you need to apply for your co-op funding. I can only do all of that if you buy Magic 96."

"Okay, I'll do it."

"Excuse me, Bob?"

"You're right. I was very comfortable with everything we had put together until that one conversation at my party. I trust you and I'm ready to move forward with the program."

"Thanks, Bob. I'll start working on the commercial right after this sales meeting."

I grabbed my stuff and hurried into the conference room.

When I told my story, the veteran sellers just sat there with their mouths hanging open. Dick was smiling as he said,

"In our business, every client expects 'added value'. Everyone in this market tries to do that by offering traffic sponsorships, or no-charge spots. Today, Tim found out and reminded each of us that the very best added value always has been and always will be you."