When I last talked to Johnny, he was at a cross road. The question is simple; will Johnny get what he needs to succeed, or will he take the path of least resistance? I guess you will have to look inside yourselves to really know that answer.

Thanks for sharing this time with Johnny and me, we really appreciate it and hope you learned something. Be sure to check out the web site and dont hesitate to email me at mnick[at]roi4sales.com.

Finally the smartest thing Johnny said to me was he wanted to develop a set of sales tools that would capture information, assess value and present solutions –and then package them to use in a successful, repeatable sales process. I guess there is hope for him. He really needs to enlist marketing to help him. I reminded Johnny how important it is to use sales tools for what they were designed to do. Sales tools will help drive a sales process write that down Johnny!

Speaking of sales tools I am a huge fan of www.justsell.com – I love these guys, they provide us with what my friend Jill Konrath calls triggering events. In case you dont know what that means, it is basically an event that occurs in a company that can spawn interest in your products and services. For example, an IPO, or infusion of VC are pretty good triggering events. So check them out, it is a great web site. Speaking of great web sites, you may want to check out the resource guide on www.whyjohnnycantsell.com. The resource guide breaks down sales tools by books, CRM tools, ROI tools, Proposal tools, Research tools and a whole bunch more.

I asked Johnny about the sales environment. He said, like anywhere, a lot of tension between sales and marketing, and sales and development. Everyone thinks youre always selling them something. He reminded me of a phrase Mahan Khalsa once wrote, Sales is the second oldest profession, often confused with the first.

I think I am offended by this. If the world didnt have sales professionals the economy would probably come to a halt. Think about it, if every American didnt buy any goods or services for a week, the economy would fall apart. In fact the world economy would likely crash too. It is critical to your success as a sales professional to shift the paradigm from the negative connotation of sales person, to one of trusted advisor or consultative sales professional. How? It is not that difficult really.

Learn to do your homework up front use tools like their Annual report or 10K, or sign up for Harris InfoSearch, Jigsaw, Bitpipe.com or First Research to get a better understanding of your prospect. Then ask questionslots and lots of questions. My father always told meGod gave you one mouth and two ears, use them in that proportion!

Well Johnny shared some of his ideas for increasing sales with me and I have to tell you. I now know why Johnny cant sell. His first thought was, lower the price everyone buys the cheapest. Johnny I only want to tell you this once, no matter what price you sell your products and services for, someone will always sell it for less. In general people do not buy on price alone.

The next thing Johnny was going to do is to, go into the market and hire sales superstars. This too is probably a bad idea. In the book Conversations on customer service and sales, Ken Edmundson writes, we have a 52% chance of hiring the right person. It is only increased by 8% if we employ superior interviewing skills.

He goes on to say that there are certain traits great sales people possess. They include:

• Passion
• Determination
• Self-discipline
• Attitude
• High self esteem
• Belief system
• Communication skills.

I shared this with Johnny. Finally he shocked me with this oneYou know Michael, Emotional connections are for sissies. Johnny, Johnny, Johnny my prodigal child. Most buying decisions are based on emotion. We typically buy on emotion and justify with logic. Think about that time-share you bought in Mexico last year. I can assure you that if a buyer doesnt like you, your company or products, they aint buyin from ya!!!!

Tom Siebel once wrote:

Sales is the untamed frontier of the business world; unpredictable, passionate, theatrical, full of eccentric characters, and dangerous to the newcomer. Like the frontier, the destiny of sales is to be explored, settled, and tamed by people using the RIGHT TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY. But many also will perish on this frontier, because they are unprepared, unnecessarily exposed to the elements, and annihilated by quick-footed and aggressive foes. The real question is: how many bones will lie bleaching in the desert or buried on Boot Hill before the new era finally arrives? And will you be one of those victims?

This quote is so true! Sales people will always fail if they do not have the right technologies and right tools to do their job. Why is it that companies spend millions on recruiting and very little on sales tools and customized sales training? Think about this oneWhat do you spend to keep your web site up to date? Now what do you spend to keep your literature up to date or on other sales tools? Arent they all vital to your organizations success? My advice to everyone is carefully select, customize and integrate your sales methodology, sales process, and sales tools so your sales professionals are totally prepared to compete.

Johnny called me today and asked me this question: Why is it that we spend millions of dollars on technology to keep sales people from selling to us, and yet management constantly complains when we are having trouble contacting stake holders? SPAM filters, Email, gatekeepers, number blockers, etc. are all technologies that keep sales people from reaching their target market. As sales people, how do we beat technology with technology?

Johnny and I discussed some of the techniques we have observed over the years and put together a short list of opportunities. Ideas likewell Blogging for instance. This is a wonderful way to get your unedited message across to potential buyers. The usual suspects are always available to you too, like email campaigns, Fax campaigns, a newsletter, and of course the current most popular item, the Web Cast. We discussed a new technique called the book review. Visit one or more of the online book retailers and write a book review on books in your space. Discuss how it affected you and your business. Then enter your real name and company name. While you are in there, look at those people that wrote reviews and call them. Lookup there contact information at www.jigsaw.com. Jigsaw is an awesome tool for sales people check it out!!

Thank you for having me as a guest blogger at 800CEOREAD. I am honored to be able to share some of my thoughts with your readers. My new book Why Johnny Cant Sell is filled with plenty of terrific insights into sales, sales process and sales tools, all wrapped around a wonderful story about Johnny and his many challenges as a salesman and sales manager. I am going to share with you some of Johnnys stories and what he did to overcome the many challenges of selling.

First, however let me introduce Johnny to you. Johnny started a new job today, selling for a 20-year old software company. Johnnys job description is simple: Sell now, and hire a staff when things are going. Obviously a little vague, but you get the point.

Johnny has been selling for over 20 years. He started his career working for IBM, quit about five years later to try his hand at a dot com with IPO aspirations. He had a great deal of success selling and managing, but the IPO just didnt happen, so Johnny moved on to another small company.

This new organization was VC backed, and Johnny really thought he had a home. He was pretty successful on large complex deals, but the VCs were not impressed with the companys growth rate and decided to go a different direction. Johnny finally landed at a job where he got to run things, but after two years, they too werent growing fast enough for upper management. So, Johnny is now starting this new job.