Industry Magazine Get JACK'D Magazine Spring 2017 | Page 30
ASK JACK
Ask Jack
INSIGHTS FROM THE EXPERT
1. What is the best way to separate
yourself from your competition?
My answer is threefold: a) Focus on your
goals; b) Caring more about the customer
than caring about the sale; and c) Grit in
times of adversity.
2. What is the most fundamental tool
for customer retention?
Proactive communication and honesty.
Look, I don’t like bad news. No one does.
But I have told those around me, if you have
bad news, please get it to me quick so I can
mitigate the losses and take action to turn
things around.
3. What’s been your biggest tool in
remaining accountable professionally?
As most folks know, I am driven by my
goals. However, my insurance policy is my
team of trusted accountability partners
who hold my feet to the fire. I have five
accountability partners on my personal
goals, three on my business goals, and six on
my triathlon goals. That’s fourteen in total
for a guy in his late sixties—and they are
“caring badasses”!
4. What do you do to live a balanced
life?
I’m thinking of my wife Bonnie right
now and she would laugh and say I’m not. I
disagree. For example, we agree two years
in advance on how many nights in a year I
will sleep in hotels on business, how many
nights traveling for fun, and how many
nights I’ll be home. For several years now,
my nights have been evenly divided among
the three. Of late, I have been increasing the
number of nights at home. If I reacted to all
the business opportunities I am presented
SPRING 2017
with, I’d be in hotels on business over 300
nights a year and the balance would be shot.
Getting buy-in early will reduce turbulence
later.
5. Your mantra of “hire slowly,
fire quickly”: Is there a breaking
point? Do you give second and third
opportunities?
On one polar extreme, I have hired a
salesperson whom I have fired before the
end of the first day. I realized I got bs’d in the
interview process, and no matter how much
training and coaching I provided, ultimately
I would be letting this hire go. Once I realized
it, I took action. (My bad on the interview/
hire). On the other hand, I believe in providing
multiple chances as long as the salesperson
still believes, is committed to the systems
and processes, and is demonstrating a solid
work ethic.
6. At what point are you trying to
bring on new salespeople?
First off, there is always room on a sales
team for top performers. Accordingly,
there is no such thing as “fully staffed”.
Think sports teams. They all have a list of
recruits, are always courting them, and
would instantly jump at the chance to hire a
top-notch performer.
7. Have you ever put a limit on your
head count inside your regional
offices?
My concern is that salespeople have
too few opportunities. Justifiable? No, not
justifiable. No, I don’t believe in limiting
the number of salespeople operating in
any location. It always makes me laugh
when I hear this concern, which usually is
coming from a sales team that has less
than a 5 percent share of the market! Even
doubling your number of salespeople would
equate to maybe a 10 percent share, leaving
90 percent still out there! It’s a refrain
often heard in the franchisee arena. Yet,
look at how many McDonalds are at each
freeway exit, with each capitalizing on the
presence of the other. Heck, Starbucks has
an intersection in Vancouver with a coffee
shop on three of the four corners, each with
lines (and they wanted all four corners!). In
most businesses, if you want to grow your
sales, grow your salesforce in quantity and
quality.
8. What are some examples of
“touch points” that have been most
successful for you, and how often
were you using them?
Rather than one or two examples, the
key with touch points is their diversity.
Certainly, things about your company
should be in there, but be careful of being
out of balance in this area as you will be
perceived, rightly so, of “showing up and
throwing up”. Mix it up with things you
personally know about the prospects,
things that are specific to their industry
that can be helpful to them, things that are
of a general business nature that can assist
them, and things that are plain fun. As well,
mix up the frequency of contact based on
the desirability of the prospect (note, all of
this applies to your customers/clients as
well). Given all of that, I’ve always favored
providing my targets with info that will help
them with their needs, opportunities, and
problems that go beyond my products or
services.
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