Beat Sales Burnout Maximize Sales Minimize Stress – Stephan Schiffman

“The great mind knows the power of gentleness.” —Robert Browning, nineteenth-century British poet One of the most stressful experiences that salespeople must deal with has to be the “glazed eyeball” syndrome during an initial meeting with a new contact. This is the familiar situation where we haven’t established rapport and we’re getting no meaningful feedback from the other person—and we’re trying more and more desperately to “show that we know our stuff” so we get some kind of response from the person.

Unfortunately, these efforts rarely pay off, and we usually conclude the meeting frustrated. We gave a great performance, and explained everything backwards and forwards and inside and out, and got no commitment for a second meeting from the other person! The very act of trying to charm, impress, or entertain a new sales contact is likely to increase, rather than decrease, the discon- nect you are getting from the person.

Rather than recite the con- tents of your product brochure, or share long stories about your own career, use one or more of the following three strategies, and you will significantly reduce the likelihood that you will experience a stressful “disconnect” during a first meeting: 1. Ask the other person about his or her career. Just about everyone is an expert on, and loves to discuss, his or her own career.

If you are talking to the founder of the company, ask the person how he or she decided to start the business. If you are talking to a recently appointed CEO, ask him or her how he hooked up with the company. If you are talking to a sales manager who has been with the firm for the last six years, ask how the person worked his or her way up through the ranks. If you are dealing with someone whose background or title is completely unfamiliar to you, use the all- purpose and highly effective question: “How does someone become a ?”

Your goal is to get the person to tell you a story. 2. In the extremely unlikely event that asking the person to open up does not yield any meaningful interaction, ask the person how he or she made a certain decision on the job. Obviously, if what you can ask about something that actually relates to a solu- tion that your company can provide, you will be in a much better position to move the relationship forward.

Copyright ©2005 by Stephan Schiffman. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews. Published by Adams Media, an F + W Publications Company 57 Littlefield Street Avon, MA 02322 Visit our home page at www.adamsmedia.com ISBN: 1-59337-155-1 (paperback) ISBN-13: 978-1-59337-155-5 (EPUB) Printed in Canada J I H G F E D C B A Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schiffman, Stephan. Beat sales burnout / Stephan Schiffman.

p. cm. ISBN 1-59337-155-1 (paperback) ISBN-13: 978-1-59337-155-5 (EPUB) 1. Selling—Vocational guidance. 2. Burnout (Psychology)—Prevention. 3. Job stress. I. Title. HF5438.25.S3338 2005 158.7’23—dc22 2004013274 This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the pub- lisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent profes- sional person should be sought.

—From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations The characters and examples in this book are fictional and are used for illustration purposes only. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their prod- ucts are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Adams Media was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters. This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases. For information, please call 1-800-872-5627. iii Acknowledgments My thanks go out to all the people whose help made this book possible: Brandon Toropov, Steve Bookbinder, Lynne Einleger, Amy Stagg, Scott Forman, Tina Bradshaw, Alan Koval, Surendra Sewsankar, George Richardson, Stacia Skinner, Art Jackson, David Rivera, and everyone else at D.E.I.

Management Group. As always, thank you Daniele, Jennifer, and Anne. iv Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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