Black Sales Journal

Entertaining your clients can be both fun and productive.  It can be used as a tool to strengthen relationships, and at the very least increase your familiarity with the customer’s key people.  Used incorrectly, it can reveal things, right or wrong, about you and or your company in regard to your class, morals, and standing that will be indelibly etched in your customer’s and co-employee’s memory.

Be Smart and Practical

In the universe of entertainment options your choices should be safe and time proven.  Fine dining, spectator-sporting events, golf and other sporting events are time proven.  Relaxing activities such as spas, manicure/pedicures, makeovers, and other activities are making a strong showing as well.

There is, of course, some areas best left out.  Engaging the customer at gentlemen’s clubs, also known as ‘strip clubs’, is totally off limits!  It lacks class, and is far from harmless.  There is no activity, which is in poorer taste than this, whether you are supporting (paying for) the activity or you have the gall to have your company pay for it.  For the most part it is in violation of most expense policies (see Black Sales Journal 4/4/11 Business Entertainment – Some Do’s and Don’ts).

Stand for Something!

Black sales professionals beware: Company expense policies should be observed, and the letter of the law in an expense policy is important, but more important is understanding the intent.  The intent should be followed without fail.  In establishing and retaining credibility sales professionals don’t need to run afoul of what is, or what should be, socially acceptable.

Gone are the days when sales professionals and executives can entertain at gentlemen’s clubs without scrutiny.  Everyone should be held accountable for relationship building that is socially acceptable and open to both genders, all ethnic groups, and all sexual orientations.

Even if your customer asks to participate in one of these activities, you should show an unwavering stance and say that it is not something that you want to do.  I think that you should have the confidence to say, “No, but I have something else that we can do that will be great.”  That effort to redirect will probably be accepted, but even if rejected, I think you will have shown your character.

Stand up for yourself in this.  A mentor of mine told me once, “If you don’t stand for something, you don’t stand for s—!”  Think about it.  What do you stand for?

The Real Costs!

When men get together and consider the gentlemen’s club option, just think how offensive and exclusionary that is, or can be, to female customers, or co-employees.  It is discriminatory, and totally unfair!  You lose your integrity, your credibility, and respect.  Hmmm!  I am not sure you have much left that is considered universally of value.

The same is true for female sales professionals.  Taking clients to an ‘all men’ review is equally poor in taste.  Protect your image as well.

I am not sure which would be worse, to leave your female counterparts or customers behind, or to be as ridiculous as to ask them to attend.  Show your character and avoid mindless activities.  Keep everyone engaged an involved.  Treasure everyone’s feelings in the process.

A Personal Example

I was once a regional sales manager in the Michigan/Ohio market.  This market is dominated by the auto industry, but also focused in southeastern Michigan, basically Detroit.  I enjoyed the 6 year stint there, but was continually asked to go either to 8 Mile, an area replete with gentleman’s clubs, or to Windsor, Canada, another area brimming with strip clubs and other attractions.

An executive vice-president of my organization visited our office with one of his direct reports, a senior vice president, in tow.  After the requisite meeting they ask me to take them to Windsor.  I will be honest, I felt some pressure as this was two steps up from my manager, an important company officer, and very influential.

I said to them, “I will not be going there, but you can use my vehicle to go if you are sure that is what you want to do.” It was met with the quick reply, “Come on, we are going to talk business with you!  You need to be there for us to talk about this stuff.”  The Senior VP then said, “Don’t give me this s— that you don’t go to strip clubs….”  I retorted, “You don’t want to hear it, but I don’t go to strip clubs.”

They smirked, but found someone else to take them.  I always wondered whether it would affect my career, but it did not do any long-term damage, although it was known in the short term that I was not one of the ‘boys”.  Remember, you have to stand for something!

Stand Tall

Find comfort in standing tall in situations like this. Don’t do anything because the ‘crowd’ thinks you should.  Whether you are male or female, Black or white, gay or straight, be you and eventually you will be appreciated for your stance.  If you partake of these activities currently, you should consider your image and take this opportunity to change.  See the light!

Your comments are welcome.

I guess you could say that I have “Drank the Kool-Aid”  On this one!  There are just certain skills, attributes, and attitudes that you can have or develop that will put you in the leagues with the best.  Today, Monday (June 10th) and next Thursday (June 13th) I will lay them out.  Read them and be the best!

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Since late November of 2010, we have described many of the traits that a true successful professional would have.  We have outlined the activities and processes that would, over time, make a verifiable difference in this individual’s ability to reach goals, and provide customer satisfaction.

We have discussed personality attributes and skills that make a difference over the last several posts.  Once again it is time to talk about how a sales professional puts these all together and finds success.

Over the next three posts we will revisit these important posts and put these together in an effort to portray that individual who is sought by sales managers and customers alike.

This professional has learned the benefits of mastering relationships, both internal and external, to get the maximum leverage from each personal encounter.  This professional knows the different methods of getting exposure, and how to capitalize on it.  This individual is always prepared.

There will be some references to previous issues of Black Sales Journal, as I want to keep this as concise as possible, yet capitalize on the wealth of information that has been published to date.

Deep Enduring Relationships

There is no area more important in the long run than knowing how to ‘master the relationship’.  It does not matter what your level of intelligence is if you cannot decipher how to ‘work’ your personal relationships to your advantage, and your customers benefit, you will not have maximum effectiveness.

There is an ‘art to the relationship’ that is undeniable.  It cannot be substituted by process, intelligence, or hard work.  You see, the ‘art of the relationship’ is not an inherited trait.  It is something that you hone with every interface.  It can be aided by having a gregarious and engaging personality.

The successful Black sales professional has the ability to form deep and enduring customer relationships (Black Sales Journal 1/13, Deep and Enduring Customer Relationships and Black Sales Journal 1/20, Deep and Enduring Customer Relationships II).  This individual works with the assurance that existing relationships are strong enough to receive ‘preference’ as compared to ‘wanna-be’ sales professionals look to unseat him or her.  In other words, the customer prefers to do business with someone like this professional, and that preference ‘spoils’ the customer.  This is a powerful preference that is enduring, and anchors the relationship.  We all want to work with someone that provides value, and is concerned about our business, and produces results for us.

This ‘preference’ exists not only because of the solid personal and business connection that exists, but also because the professional is effective in providing the customer something of value.  Always strive to always be effective and always show value.

Undying Professionalism

Being effective is a good start, yet by itself it is not enough.  The consummate professional is more than just effective; he or she does those things that exude success.  We talked about this in Black Sales Journal 3/7, Be the Consummate Professional. This individual is:

• Punctual
• Empathetic
• Attentive
• Knowledgeable
• Organized
• Responsive
• Visionary

Most of these are self explanatory, yet I want to spend a minute on a couple of them:

Responsiveness is ever important.  As stated in Black Sales Journal, Responsiveness – the Objective of the Sales Professional 6/16/2011, responsiveness is in the eyes of the customer.  It is defined by the customers expectations, and includes such important items as:

• Answers the phone and returns calls promptly
• Keeps commitments
• Provides answers to inquiries and questions as soon as possible
• Stays in touch – communicates
• Provides requested information promptly

Knowledge will always set you apart.  This knowledge could get you labeled an expert.  This ‘designation’ comes from those people and businesses that have benefited from your knowledge, and make the claim in your behalf.  See a most interesting set of articles in Black Sales Journal 12/20, Your Customer Needs an Expert and Black Sales Journal 6/27, More on Being an Expert – An Edge for the Black Sales Professional.  Expert power is attractive to a customer.

Empathy provides a connection and a serum that convinces the customer you are real.  If you have no empathy for the customer, then why are you calling on them?  How are you going to solve their problem if you don’t have that connection?  Put yourself in you customer’s shoes.  Live their problems and your solutions will come about easier.  Always keep in mind that a customer can tell when you have no empathy as easily as you can tell when a love interest of yours is not interested.

Now for the point that pulls this together:  If you condition yourself to be accomplished at all of these different items, you will havecredibility. Enormous credibility is the product of having deep enduring relationships and being a consummate sales professional.

More to Come….

Armed with what is above you would think that success would be much more probable.  You probably are correct, although what are missing are the activities, habits, and processes that make the person formidable even if some of the personality issues are missing.

We will cover them in the next two information-filled posts.  These are powerful for the Black sales professional.  These items are hard to put together, and even more difficult to master, yet when you do, you have an enormous amount of power and potential.

Next up:  Black Sales Journal 6/10– The Ultimate Sales Professional Pt. II –The Black Sales Professional in Action

We hope you will read it.  If you have comment, write me at Michael.Parker@BlackSalesJournal.com.