1. Can A or B process more information?
2. What is A’s challenge when starting new projects?
3. How good at multi-tasking is B?

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Answers

1. People (A) with thicker eyebrows are good at handling and processing lots of information. Talk details.
2. She has “starter” eyebrows: thicker towards the nose and thinning as they move outwards. She has great enthusiasm and talent for starting new projects. The challenge is completing them. Ask for her ideas.
3. People with thin eyebrows have mental intensity and are best sticking to one task at a time. Set priorities.



Say what you want about those local yokel car dealerships, but they know how to make money. Cut to the commercial.

“Hi, this is Wayne ‘Wacky’ Dent and do we have a deal for you! We’ve got an overstock of cars and we need to get rid of them today. We won’t turn a deal down. Just ask my partner Raving Maniac.”

“That’s right Wacky. Bring or tow your trade-in down and we’ll beat any deal!” And on it goes.

Wacky knows exactly the types of customers he’s looking for. Those who fall for his spiel. Customers rushing to Wacky’s lot expect to see lunatics sporting green wigs and orange suits practicing questionable sales tactics. And if they’re crazy enough to fall for the ad, they’re crazy enough to fall to Wacky’s bags of tricks.

Advertising does more than find new customers. Advertising also sets expectations. Expect better.

Barbara and Allan Pease (Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps) found that if women want to talk to men, they must understand the men’s M.O. Men are competitive and aggressive in their conversations. Every word counts. Men are conversational bottom liners. Leave out the fluff, get to the point. Women can multi-task conversations. Men are single-task talkers.

And men hate to be interrupted. They found that when two men are talking with each other, rarely will they interrupt one another. (Chris Matthews is the #1 exception.) However, when men are talking with women (sorry ladies – this is not fair but true), they’ll interrupt the women 76% of the time. “Hurry up!” their mind is yelling.

The lesson for women in business? Don’t interrupt the man, be precise with your words, and get to the point with as few words as possible.

Research was done with some brokers in Los Angeles to determine if the sequence of asking questions was important.

The brokers were to make their cold calls with lists given to them by their sales manager. The second question, the test question, was, “Do you have $10,000 you’d like to invest?” The brokers made several hundred calls and got no appointments, and of course, no sales. Typical responses: “It’s none of your business.” “Invest? I never invest.” “10,000? Are you nuts?”

The sales manager drove his brokers through the areas they were calling. Beverly Hills and Bel Air. These people don’t have $10,000? They don’t invest? That was too tough a question to ask that early in the call. Right question, wrong sequence.

They re-positioned the $10,000 question as question number six the next day and made their calls. They got appointments leading to sales.

Asking questions. Timing is everything.

Your relatives, friends, and neighbors want to know, “What do you do?”

But I don’t care what you do. I want to know, “What’s your cause?” What you do is a job. Your cause is a passion. Passions move mountains.

Causes change lives. Space exploration. Olympians. Philanthropists. Religion. Politics. Technology. And causes don’t have to be just on a grand scale. Chefs have a cause to make the best. Teachers with a cause change lives. A writer or a poet may save a life. A volunteer makes lives bearable. A doctor removes the pain. An entrepreneur who risks it all on a dream and a prayer changes the world. A boss or a coach can motivate others to excel beyond their wildest expectations.

Discover your cause. It may already be in what you’re selling. If so, make selling more than a job. Make it a cause. Change people’s lives.

Myth: if you have a good service or product, it sells itself.

Truth: if you build a better mousetrap will the customers come? There are thousands of examples of superior services and products that never got off the ground because the creator never understood sales and marketing.

Anyone who believes that a good service or product sells itself has never cold called. Never learned how to qualify a prospect. Never handled objections. Never negotiated. Never used persuasive skills to close the deal.

They may understand their service or product inside out. But they don’t understand people and the psychology of selling. They understand the facts. But they can’t mesh the facts with the benefits.

Good services and products are needed. But they’ll never see the light of day without the skills of professional salespeople.



“I just wanted to touch base with you to see if you’re still interested in getting more publicity. If so, please give me a call so we can set up a time to chat. I’d love to speak with you about how our company can assist you get the results you want faster and easier. You can send me some of your available dates and times in the next couple of weeks and my assistant will get back to you to confirm a date.”

While it is critical to keep your name in your prospect’s mind, this email misses the mark. It does not give a compelling reason why I should respond, and it’s obvious that it’s part of a generic email campaign.
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Kelley Robertson. Kelley helps sales professionals reach their sales quotas and targets in any economy. Receive a FREE copy of 100 Ways to Increase Your Sales by subscribing to his free newsletter available at www.Fearless-Selling.ca. For information on his programs contact him at 905-633-7750 or by email.

Write the ad to describe the salesperson you’re looking for, not a description of the job. Here’s an ad found on CareerBuilder: “Sell auto, home, life and other insurance products to individuals and Affinity groups within assigned territory using consultative selling techniques.” It goes on for several more mind-numbing lines.

Quit fooling around. Describe the salesperson who will make you money: “We’re not giving you leads. You have to cold call and find them yourself. No sitting around in the office looking busy. Starting out, your hours will be long. The work is hard. You can’t be a wimp. No whining allowed. Lots of night work. No lazy people. If you don’t have the passion, don’t apply.”

The second ad lays it on the line: are you man or woman enough for this job?

Both ads will draw the people they deserve. Who do you want to interview?

Went into one of those combination fast food joints that served KFC and Long John Silvers fish and chips. Wasn’t sure what I was hungry for, so checked out the posted selections. KFC had 28 different combinations to select from. Long John had as many. Got the fish and chips. Regretted it. Way too much and way too greasy. Didn’t sit well. Wish there was a Spud’s closer to our house. The best fish and chips in Seattle, and fewer choices to confuse.

When in Ft. Worth, I love going to Joe T. Garcia’s. They have a menu, but you don’t need it. You have two choices. And they only take cash. That’s why they’re the best Mexican food in America. The greatest food, they know their strengths, and they have a cash machine in front.

Given a choice, customers want the best – not the most choices.

Ever wonder why some people within the organization don’t get promoted up, and instead outsiders with no experience within their industry are brought in to fill those top spots?

It could be the problem that existing employees knowing too much about their jobs. They know how to do their jobs so well that when they’re told to hand off some of their responsibilities, they find it hard to let go. They try to tell others how to do the job the way they would do it instead of leaving them to their own creative devices. They become crutches the workers fall back onto to do the job for them.

The job of managers is to tell the workers what to do, not how to do it. And when the job is done, don’t ask a lot of questions. You might not want to know.