owner to think in the right ways before we even walk in the door.”
Rather than just giving it out, however, Kopchuk sug- gests letting the prospect know why it would be in their best interest to fill it out. “If you explain the reasons why a client should fill it out, they’re much more receptive to the process, rather than simply handing them the paperwork or giving out the Web address.”
Once he gets the completed questionnaire, Kopchuk calls the prospect to review what’s going on in that indi- vidual’s business, just to make sure he or she sees value in the upcoming meeting. “After filling it out, the prospect is usually looking forward to our get-together,” he says.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE DOING
Jeb Blount is a doer. He’s just not a very good “no”-sayer.
“I hate to not help people. I just tell everybody that it’s okay, and that I’ll do whatever they ask,” says Blount. “I get burned every now and then, but not very often. And when I decide to get something done, I move really fast. I take action.”
Blount is the creator and starship commander of SalesGravy.com, the most-visited sales content site on the Internet. SalesGravy.com has more than 400,000 visitors, 3 million page views, and 10 million hits every single month. “In February of ’09, we had an average of 35 page views per visitor,” says Blount. “Think about that. That’s huge. Do you know how much content is on 35 pages?
That means people are searching around for hours on our site and reading page after page of great stuff. It’s become one of the top 20,000 web sites out of the 10 million web sites in the world.”
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74 THE REALLY STRONG, REALLY SILENT TYPE
Blount began SalesGravy with a few friends in January of 2007. “We just got it going and tried to break stuff,”
Blount recalls. “We jumped in and got our hands dirty. We experimented, looked at the data, and experimented again.
We keep tinkering and improving the product to the point where we know now what works and what doesn’t. We’ve changed almost 100 percent of the site from where we started. The only thing that’s still there from our first day online is the banner on the top of the page.”
Blount’s sales career started at age 23, when he sold nutrition and counseling programs for NutriSystem Weight Loss Centers. “I was good because I did stuff. I lis- tened to people. I wasn’t as interested about selling them a program as I was figuring out why they wanted the results we provided,” recalls Blount.
Shortly after becoming the number one salesperson in the area, Blount set his sights on becoming the district manager of several centers. His area manager, however, was unconvinced he could do it. “She came down to my center and put me to the test. She said, ‘Pick someone out of the lobby of the building, bring her in here, give her the tour, and if you sell her, I’ll consider you for the DM job.’ I picked out a random woman who just happened to be in the lobby, gave her the facility tour, asked her a few questions, and listened to her. I told her a little bit about NutriSystem, and when I was done, she started writing me a check for our Premier program— the highest-priced pro- gram we offered—before I could even tell her how much the program was!”
Yes—he got the district manager job.
SalesGravy.com is a huge extension of Jeb Blount the salesperson. “I have an ability to help others make emotional connections between things, then relate it to
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TAKEAWAYS 75
something they know and help them to understand the connections.” And that’s exactly what SalesGravy.com does extremely well. It’s part education, part Facebook, part cof- fee shop. People come to learn, exchange, and grow in their field of professional sales. The hundreds of posted articles are from recognized experts in selling, and the content is all free. “I love the whole business of aggregating training and sales into one place,” he says.
There’s no slowing Blount down with meaningless con- versation about doing something “someday.”
“If somebody’s got an idea that makes sense and they bring it to me, I usually say, ‘Let’s go!’ There’s no need to waste time thinking about it,” says Blount. “I get excited about innovation and new ideas, and I’m ready to go. If somebody says, ‘I need to think about it,’ I know there’s going to be a problem. I’m a believer in trying things and seeing what works. Make a bunch of mistakes. Get in there and do something. Just be flexible. If it isn’t working, try it a different way. Just do something.”
TAKEAWAYS
Talking Less and Doing More
Dominant players talk less and take action more than others. This doesn’t mean that they don’t take time to carefully plan their activities; it simply means they’re predisposed to action vs. standing still.
800-Pound Gorillas use systems to get more out of every action they pursue in selling. Acting impul- sively is often not a smart business move. The best sales professionals use systems that are carefully designed to guide a prospect through the different
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phases of the product’s discovery, education, desire, and call to action. Each effort is there to move the prospect to the next phase, in logical sequence. That way, each expenditure of effort is placed just where it needs to be. The less time that is spent on wasted effort, the more return that can be realized per hour.
In an 800-Pound Gorilla’s world, doing something and making a mistake is far better than talking about potentially making a mistake. Those who are dominant players believe that with action there is information, learning, and progress taking place.
“Analysis paralysis,” or talking about action inces- santly without doing anything, drives them crazy.
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