Are you in a slump? Many of us probably feel like we’ve been in a slump all season! I am an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal and recently this story appeared there, offering up advice on how you can get out of a slump. Please take a moment to read the article right now; it has a ton of very valuable advice.

Please tell me what you do to get out of the sales slumps you get in.

How many times this year have you lost a sale to the competition? I know I’ve lost several. It’s never a good feeling. Often times I think sales professionals feel they lost the sale simply because their price was higher. And, that very well may be the case but I choose to look at lost sales a little differently. I think hard about what I could have done better to prove to the prospect that I was worth the extra investment. There are many thoughts that go through my head; I could write a whole book just on this. This is a Great Idea; it’s designed to be quick and to the point. So, let me stay on that track this week.

Any time we lose a sale it’s because the competition has a better relationship with the prospect than you do. How many of you have had a client for years, a new manager comes in and they bring in a vendor they knew from their prior job. There is a friendship, a level of trust there, that is going to be hard for you to replicate. How many times do you feel you clearly presented a better case to earn the business yet the prospect stays with their regular vendor? Why? Because you didn’t have the relationship the other company did.

This week, examine how much attention you’re paying to your existing clients. Make sure you’re not taking them for granted. Call them, e-mail them or, best of all—go see them! How much time are you spending making new relationships? You need to do this so you have a source for future business.

Relationship Selling is the best and only way to sell, in my book. When you Make Friends, you Make Sales!

Talk to you next week.

PS – I am strongly considering a private one-day sales/marketing meeting for a select few clients in Dayton, Ohio. If there is enough interest, we’ll do it. It is limited to approximately 30 people and it is going to cost $495 bucks. There will be a VIP option, for an additional charge, that entails a quick tour of Grunder Landscaping the day before and dinner at my house, where we will be able to spend time talking about your business and answering your questions. If you are interested in attending, it will be Tuesday, December 7th (VIP on December 6th), and it will cover sales strategies and sale management for Landscapers as well as marketing. Everyone that attends will leave with a marketing plan for their company. If you are interested in being invited to this, please contact us. First-come, first-served.

Hello, I hope this great idea finds you well. Recently, I did some consulting with a landscaping company. They are a very well-run, small company, and a market leader to boot. They do many things very, very well and, by all accounts, you’d think they weren’t missing a thing. However, during the course of my visit, I discovered a few things that they could improve upon that would make a big difference. As is usually the case with my consulting, I often find sales opportunities that the management team did not think of. And this was the case here.

Here’s an e-mail I got from one of the sales professionals after I left:

Hi Marty, Just had to send you a note to say how much I enjoyed talking this morning. I only wish we could have spent more time together. After you left I took a drive down the Point and ran into the guy who lives next door to Margo (where Jessie is working) and he wondered what we were doing and how much does it cost. I told him it depends on many factors, but if he would like, we would be more than happy to stop next week and discuss what we could do for him. He said, “Yes, please do that.” Then at the stop sign, the guy with the Tootsie Rolls was an old lawn account of ours, we chatted for a minute, I told him we are in the lawn maintenance again. He said he would have to remember that for next year. I told him I would see him next week. You’re right, the maintenance work is there. We knew that, but we were just going about it the wrong way. When I got back, I sat down with my Tootsie Roll and opened up one of my “Mac” books and right there it was…“It’s Easier For Companies To Come Up With New Ideas Than To Let Go Of Old Ones.” – Peter Drucker. With that said, Thanks a million for all you do for our Team!

I love the honesty in the e-mail and I love the fact that he went out and did what I suggested, which was to tell the world about their maintenance work and their services.

Last week my coach asked me why I didn’t send my “Great Idea” e-mail to my Grunder Landscaping clients. He said I should do that and add some education about landscaping and he thinks it would go over well. He thinks I would sell more landscaping using this tactic. Well, I didn’t mess around; I already have that started. And yes, I was ignorant for never looking at this. To be honest, I feel stupid for not thinking of this. Oh well, Marty doesn’t have it all figured out, does he?

Here’s my point: none of us have all the answers. When we think we have it “all figured out,” it’s time to quit. I don’t have it all figured out; none of us do. So, the question becomes: what are you overlooking? When is the last time you had someone put a critical eye on your business? Do you ask your clients and your team for suggestions? And most of all: are you willing to listen? If you are, success will find you.

I am strongly considering a private one-day sales/marketing meeting for a select few clients in Dayton, Ohio. If there is enough interest, we’ll do it. It is limited to approximately 30 people and it is going to cost $495 bucks. There will be a VIP option, for an additional charge, that entails a quick tour of Grunder Landscaping the day before and dinner at my house, where we will be able to spend time talking about your business and answering your questions. If you are interested in attending, it will be Tuesday, December 7th (VIP on December 6th), and it will cover sales strategies and sale management for Landscapers as well as marketing. Everyone that attends will leave with a marketing plan for their company. If you are interested in being invited to this, please contact us. First-come, first-served.

Unfortunately, I have had each of my 3 cars in the body shop in the last year. None of the accidents were our fault. Unless you call crashing into a Flying Chalk Board with my pal Joe Calloway in the car my fault. As Joe said in his southern drawl, right after it happened, “Man, we’re lucky to be alive.” Anyway, my last trip to the body shop was with my wife’s brand new truck that was run into by a landscaper yep, a landscaper. Can’t make this stuff up. While there I took a photo of this sign placed on the TV:

Now, I know they need to get a professionally-made sign. But this body shop I use is excellent. It’s the Beau Townsend Body Shop in Vandalia, Ohio. Neil up there runs a great show. He is conscientious, polite and, best of all, does great work. We won’t take our vehicles anywhere else.

My Great Idea this week is to make sure you are doing the little things right for your customers too. It might not seem like a big deal but at a body shop the waiting room can be a busy place and you can make a few more friends by just switching the TV station to what the client wants, not what you want.

At the place where I took my son to get his haircut one time, the lady cutting his hair wouldn’t switch to the Notre Dame game; she was watching the Ohio State game. Sheeesh….who’s paying the bill? At Kroger’s, a grocery in my hometown, I have observed the employees parking by the front door, eliminating those spots for the customer. And I recently walked into a pharmacy at 8:55 pm, not even sure which one it was, it wasn’t Walgreens, and I was greeted by a “we close in 5 minutes.” I turned around and walked out, never to go back.

I saw this sign on the wall of a Chinese restaurant in Greer, South Carolina:

Now, neither this sign nor the one on the TV at Beau Townsend Body Shop are that great looking. This one looks like a mug shot but it’s the thought and philosophy that count. We are in business to serve the client and if we let them know that in our words and, more importantly, by our actions, we are destined for success.

This is a photo of a 73-year-old man named Jim.

I ran into Jim at the local Home Depot a couple of weeks ago. I was in there to buy spray paint for my 16-year-old daughter Emily who is not allowed to buy spray paint in Ohio. My Emily is not a graffiti artist; she was making some T-Shirts for the big High School football game coming up. As I walked in the store, Jim approached me. It was very warm outside and he said, “Hello, young fellow, it’s comfortable in here, isn’t it?” To which I said, “Yes, it is.” He then said, “How comfortable is it in your house?” To which I responded, “It’s great.” “So, your air conditioning is working well on this hot day?” “Yes, it is; my house is basically brand new and so’s the A/C.” He said, “Good for you; how’s the air at your family and friend’s house?” I told him I thought it was okay and I told him I thought he was an awesome sales professional. He smiled and said, “I’ve been in sales all my life.” When I asked for more information, he told me he was in computers and retired and couldn’t handle sitting around so he works at Home Depot representing an A/C company.

How many of us cold call? How many of us look for new business like Jim does? What he did was masterful; he tried to start a conversation with a question instead of a common line like, “Do you need A/C work?” Or “Get your A/C here.” He asks a question that makes it very hard to walk by and not answer. Throw in the fact he was neatly dressed and, shall we say, mature and I’ll bet he gets all kinds of leads others would never get. Jim has learned how to make sales. He understands you must “connect” before you convince. Something many salespeople will never understand.

This week, think about what kind of a question you could ask to start a conversation that might lead to some sales. Since I have a broad range of followers, here are some I thought of:

Do you take care of the gardens at your home?

When was the last time you had your landscape professionally cleaned up?

What do you do in your free time?

Does your group hire speakers?

How do you feel about your future?

What would happen to your family if you died next week?

When was the last time you had someone analyze your business to make sure you were doing everything you could do to make more money?

I think you get the point and none of my questions are in any way close to the quality of the question Jim at Home Deport asks. I hope you’re willing to do everything you can do to go out and make some sales this week. If Jim at 73 is doing it, why aren’t you?

Of late I’ve found myself complaining a lot. Yep, I, the motivational speaker and you know that I need to knock that off. I’m going to try and spend that time cold calling prospects and calling on clients. I know there’s some work out there; I just have to work a little bit harder. Thanks for the lesson, Jim!

And by all means, don’t miss my annual leadership and sales conference, GROW! I am teaming up with an incredible speaker and consultant Joe Calloway. He’s a best-selling author and incredible talent. To be honest, you’d be a complete fool to miss what we have put together for you; unless, of course, your wife is expecting a baby like a few have said. If you would attend a seminar of mine instead of being home for the birth of a child, you need way more help that I can ever give you!