Ever heard of the term “gobbeley gook” before? Here’s the SPIA definition: All sorts of phrases that generally have the terms “market leader”, “convenient locations”, “friendly, knowledgeable staff” and “competitive rates” strung together in an attempt to gain more clients for a particular company. Salespeople, when trying to convince a potential client to switch from their established vendor to the salesperson’s company usually repeat them – a lot. Furthermore, when a potential client doesn’t seem interested, the salesperson keeps emphasizing them (read: says more “gobbeley gook” – but louder) and throws in the ultimate reason to switch to their company: “You’re more than a number with us”.

More and more, as I work with companies of all shapes and sizes, I’m realizing that the ones that really do well (read: sell for more profit) are the ones who have had the guts to challenge the norm – the status quo. When I get calls from potential clients, they’re usually calling me because they heard that at SPIA, we work with sales teams building the processes that make them more profitable and successful. That part is true. The part that most of these CEOs and sales executives miss is that before we can build any processes, we have to know exactly why your particular company deserves success in its marketplace. Generally, when I pose this question – I tend to get a lot of that same “gobbeley gook” repeated to me.

There I was in the corner talking to a lawyer “Here’s one of my cards” I said, “Why don’t I call you and we’ll set up a time to talk”. “Is Tuesday at 2 or Wednesday at 11 better for you?” I pushed.

“No thanks, we’re all set” she said and walked away just as fast as she could – I’ve actually seen running backs in the NFL run slower than her.

This happened countless times to me over and over again that night. Something had to be wrong. I knew salespeople who got referrals from people that they met at networking events. That’s what I was told to do – keep asking, go for the appointment, be persistent, blah, blah, blah. Plain and simple – I was getting lots of enemies but not a lot of business with this approach.

I decided to ask some of my friends who also attended many of the same events that I attended – they obviously must be successful because they keep coming. I was amazed at what the painful truth was – they weren’t any more successful than I was. One of them actually told me he went because of the great chicken wings that they always had. I said to myself no wonder he has a job at Home Depot on the weekends (he doesn’t do it because he likes tools – I’ve never even seen him pick up a screwdriver!) to subsidize his unsuccessful sales career

No one that I know of will disagree with me when I say that it is new sources of profitable revenue that fuels a company’s ability to grow and prosper. For many business executives, revenue only comes as a byproduct of sales pros delivering profitable business in large volume sufficient to generate a healthy bottom line profit. It is this “bottom line profit” that is the energy source which grows a healthy businesses.

It is not only volume that counts. It is profitability of the business delivered.

Anything else…? Every morning, as I stand in line (with way too many other people by the way) for a cup of coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts – I hear it over and over again: “Anything else?” asks the woman behind the counter in her somewhat broken English. Another customer, another “Anything else?” as she’s ringing [...]

Comparing the two positions will quickly point out that they are very different. Today’s savvy business executive recognizes that the traditional sales executives’ role of “recruiting, hiring, training and motivating” sales pros no longer is enough to keep the company growing and competitive.  Elements of marketing are being added to the list of responsibilities.  And [...]