036 – The Secret to a “Smooth Sale” with Elinor Stutz

Give to biz unwrapped episode 36.

Oh my God.

You're advancing your business at lightning speed followed by how are

you doing it?

Hi, this is John Lee,

Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,

and you're listening to the gift of biz unwrapped.

And now it's time to light it up.

Welcome To gift biz,

unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop

and grow your business.

And now here's your host,

Sue Monheit.

Hi there.

I'm Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrap podcast.

Whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or

are just getting started,

you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your

business. Today,

we have joining with us.

Eleanor Stutz.

Eleanor is CEO of smooth sail.

She delivers inspirational keynotes provide sales training and has authored two

best selling books.

One is called nice girls do get the sale,

which is relationship building that gets results.

And the other one is called hired capital H capital I

capital R capital E capital D exclamation point CEO,

world magazine named one of the brightest sales minds to follow

on Twitter.

She's been featured on the cover of the March,

2015 sales and service excellence e-magazine and if that's not enough

with the smooth sail blog,

Eleanor is listed as one of the top 100 most innovative

sales bloggers.

Wow. Welcome to the show LNR.

Well, thank you so much for having me Sue it's an

honor. Is there Anything you'd like to add to the intro

before we get started?

The only thing I'd Like to add is that I'm having

the time of my life being an entrepreneur.

And that apparently is the key for doing well in business.

Enjoy what you're doing.

Absolutely. And you'll give us some more details behind that as

we go on I'm sure.

Absolutely. As our listeners know,

we like to align the conversation around the life of a

motivational candle.

The light shines on you while you share your stories and

experiences. So are you ready to light it up Eleanor?

I am.

All right.

So I'm going to give you a little scene here.

You don't,

you may not know this,

but you are busy writing your third book and you are

sitting in a nice library and maybe you write on your

computer, not sure how you do it.

And just for ambiance to get that spirit flowing with the

words you have some candles surrounding you.

What color is your favorite candle that's sitting on your desk?

My Favorite candle color is purple and why purple because it

is a more creative color.

Fewer people choose that color.

And I've always been known to be different from most everyone

else. It stands out and it gives me energy.

Love That.

And what is the motivational quote on that purple candle?

For me,

it is.

And one of the ways that I'm very different is that

when you walk in regard to sales,

that is when you walk in at a Tegrity,

you never have to change your story.

Yeah. It's a lot easier when you are telling the truth,

walking in integrity,

being yourself,

right? Absolutely.

Is that quote by anybody,

you know,

there you go.

It's your own quote.

I love it.

We're going to spread this one.

How about that?

That's true.

Fantastic. Yeah,

it's a,

I'm working on a new book and it's about putting sales

on a higher plane.

Maybe you'll reveal some things here while we're chatting too.

I don't know.

I just might,

let's go back and let's talk a little bit because I'm

very intrigued and I think many of our listeners may have

found themselves in a similar situation that you did when you

first entered into the corporate world,

if you will.

So that,

you know,

we don't have to say exactly when in,

in life that was,

but it was,

you know,

several years ago and many of us walked into what were

male dominated workforces.

And I know you have a story behind that.

So why don't you give us a feel for how that

entered in and what you encountered?

Well, I was definitely not wanted on the all male sales

team. I actually cornered the district manager into hiring me.

He said something and I lived up to what he said.

And then I asked,

would you like me to start at 8:00 AM or 8:30

AM? And that was how I got hired.

So you,

it sounds like you pine hired yourself.

Yes, I did.

And I had never sold before,

other than girl scout cookies.

I learned years later that I'm a natural sales person and

I hadn't recognized that,

but the men were very upset.

I was hired.

The manager actually told the men not to speak to me.

I had no training,

never sold before.

Didn't know anything about the business equipment I was supposed to

sell. And I had asked the secretary had to do my

job. She said,

you knock on every door in your territory.

In those days we had territories when we had to go

door to door and I actually had three big cities in

my territory.

And I kid you not.

I knocked on every single door,

but the main question that I asked,

every single person who allowed me in for a meeting was

what caught your attention to invite me in today.

And then I stopped and listened so that I'd know what

to continue repeating.

And because I didn't know how to sell or anything about

what I was selling.

I just had a friendly,

personal conversation with the other person.

And then you'll never guess what happened.

They kept inviting me back.

And then their CEO kept thinking,

gee, these must be important conversations and got on their case

to either buy from me or stop all these appointments.

It was taking them away from what they were doing.

So the third month they said,

if you just bring a brochure and I'll buy from you,

I didn't even know to do that.

The fourth month I kid you not.

I was the top producer of that organization.

Wow. You know,

that's really something because way back when,

and I think that I lived in the same time and

had a very similar experience to you,

Eleanor. But I think a lot of women did try and

go into sales positions because success is based on numbers.

So that was one way for us to overcome some of

the male dominated positions,

if you will,

because numbers don't lie,

you know,

you're either selling or you're not selling.

Exactly. And the other piece that I'm still irritated about is

the lack of equality of pay.

So whenever I could,

once I got confident that I was good at sales,

I always asked to be on a hundred percent commission because

then I knew I would earn my fair share.

Wow. You were brave.

The first time was the most difficult,

but it paid off I'm sure.

So let's talk though a little bit about sales.

So you had no training and sales at that time was

very much,

you tell your customer why they need you.

Right. And you took the opposite approach.

You said,

I'm going to listen and see what they're saying.

They need.

And then see if I have the Exactly.

So starting with that question,

why did you invite me in today?

It actually is the diagonal.

It cuts through the chase and they have to be honest

about why you're sitting in front of them taking their time.

So there has to be a need.

And then you just lead the conversation with questions.

Most people do the talking selling,

and that just doesn't work.

I liken that to stocking.

But when you listen and observe body language,

facial expressions and hear,

what's not being said,

that's when you can really narrow in on what they're truly

saying, what they truly need and deliver what their expectations are

and possibly exceed them.

Right. So different and approach than anybody else was doing.

Certainly. Oh yes.

That's why I said I do everything different from everyone else

that became my personal brand.

In fact,

all my clients told me I was a breath of fresh

air that became my personal brand in the corporate world.

And so what do you think has changed now with the

sales approach over the course of time?

Because certainly now everybody does talk about,

you know,

deliver value,

deliver value,

deliver value.

And then,

so do you have any insights for us on that in

terms of the evolution of sales?

Yeah. You know,

it's funny,

there's been a big discussion amongst sales leader.

Some people say you don't need to cold call anymore.

You know,

like the prospecting I described and others say,

yes, you still do social,

made everything far more attractive and easier.

When you put out quality content,

you're going to attract those interested in what you have to

offer. And if big companies are not allowing their employees to

use social media,

I believe they're making a big error because you can greatly

expand your clientele with the usage and then have teams of

marketing and sales working together.

That's another area where it's evolving,

but you still in the ant need to pick up the

phone, email,

Skype video conference,

whatever the method is,

you need to follow up and on occasion you need to

initiate a conversation.

A one-on-one conversation,

not through a computer.

Yes. You have to initiate the conversation because you mentioned numbers.

You need to keep the pipeline full.

If you have that dry up,

you've got to start all over again.

It's going to take another three to six months to find

more clients.

You have to set a portion of your time a day

aside so that you may contact new people.

So say you're an avid social media user,

go on LinkedIn,

look at the person's profile.

See if there could be a match and ask if they'd

like to get acquainted.

And do you think it's all social media now,

do you kind of relate cold calling now to doing that

type of prospecting online through social media?

I Suggest you use all different methods.

It's similar to what we were taught years ago,

about three types of personalities,

the visual,

the audio,

and the kinesthetic,

the touchy feely type person.

And you need to know how to communicate with them.

Well, likewise,

I believe you need to use all types of mediums and

platforms to communicate with your clientele.

And the best way to do that is if you do

have some type of communication with them,

ask them what their preferred method is,

make a note of it and adhere to that.

And that way,

the loss of be more inclined to speak with.

That's a good point.

You know,

I have a lot of customers who like to communicate through

Facebook messages versus email,

or they like to talk on Twitter versus email.

Cause I kind of always have gone back and gravitated to

email along the way.

And sometimes they don't even get those messages,

you know,

because they're not looking they're,

they're looking in their preferred communication method of choice,

just like you're saying.

Absolutely. And you know,

time gets busy.

So you don't remember to look in all those message boxes.

So you really have to ask where people spend most of

their time and how they prefer to communicate.

Right? But so then on a sales end,

let's say we are selling.

Then we do have to look in all those areas,

right? And I found early on that you try to put

yourself in the other person's shoes and see their perspective first.

And when you can get into that mindset,

then you have a better idea of how to position what

it is you have that you wish them to know.

Makes sense.

So you talk a lot about taking sales to a higher

ground. What do you mean by that?

Well, as we all know,

sales people have a terrible reputation,

you know,

sell no matter what.

And don't take into consideration the benefit of the other person.

In fact,

I had that terrible image.

Also. I was at my computer one night when my children

were small and I knew I needed to find a job

to help.

One day puts them through college.

And my husband came home and said,

Eleanor, I realized what you should do for profession.

You have the personality of a sales person.

I got up and very quietly asked,

is that a compliment or an insult?

So, I mean,

you know,

it's funny,

we all laugh at that,

but there's an element of truth behind that.

So the reason I was called a breath of fresh air

is because I didn't do the talking.

I did most of the listening and I wanted to know

what clients expected to get,

what would motivate them to buy.

They had a current supplier,

what would it take for them to choose me over the

other person?

And as an entrepreneur,

same thing applies.

But I don't say,

you know,

I like to set an appointment to sell with you.

I say,

I'd like to make time for us to talk so that

we can find ways in which we may help one another.

And that makes a big difference And doing that sincerely too.

I mean,

it may be true that there isn't anything that you can

help them with,

you know,

right. At that particular time,

whatever your product is might not be a fit,

but it might be a fit next month,

next year.

Or it might be a fit to someone else that they

know. It all depends on what you're selling.

Right. And it's a very least ask if they're people that

they need to meet,

you have a big network and you're happy to make introductions.

If they have a special event,

you'll be happy to post it on Twitter or wherever,

you know,

try to be helpful.

That goes miles and miles because most people do not offer.

And the other thing I used to do when corporate was,

I was always selling against the biggest and best known.

And I would say on occasion,

you know,

we can't deliver that,

stay for that product,

with that supplier.

But as a backup vendor,

I would like to be seriously considered.

And many times I got into big companies with that rather

than a lot of people trying to lie their way through

to the sale and getting kicked out,

Right. Anything for the sale.

Cause you've got to meet your monthly numbers,

right. I never behaved that way,

Which then made you totally more credible.

Exactly. It probably.

Well, I guess I won't say that because you were saying

by the fourth month you were one of the top producers.

But what I was going to say is it takes a

little time to like lay that path because you go in

to some sales situations.

You're not necessarily the right solution.

You say,

you want to be,

you know,

let's, let's talk about me and be an alternative vendor,

but you might still have X number of dollars that you

need to sell to meet your quota for that month.

Okay. Let me address that.

Absolutely. And the larger the company,

the longer the sales cycle.

So I advise people to have different size companies in their

pipeline so that I generally speaking,

the smaller companies have tighter budgets and it's harder for them

to make a decision.

The big companies have a lot of red tape and it

takes them forever.

But the medium size companies are a little more flexible just

as you have to talk to all types of communication styles

with people,

you need to have different types of companies in your pipeline,

the greater variety and everything that you do will give you

a wider audience and bigger sales coming In.

All right,

I'm going to give you a little challenge here,

LNR, and this is not anything I had you prepare for.

So let's see if this'll work or not.

Can you talk to us about some sales situation that you

walked into that just wasn't working?

It was really challenging.

It wasn't going the way that you were hoping it would

go. And what did you do then to turn it around

or to make the situation ended up in the positive?

Okay. I have to once a really funny story,

but I'll tell you the serious one.

It was a fortune 100 company talking about long sales cycles.

The purchasing manager was playing games with me and six months

passed. I started calling all the VPs and the VPs couldn't

make a decision to save their lives.

So you'll never guess what I did.

I went,

and this was an important learning lesson.

There are no totem poles and anybody has equal thought equal

ideas. I don't care what the title is.

I went to the basement and I met the person in

charge of the business equipment down there.

And my company for the first time was going to have

a show and tell at a hotel.

So I invited the gentlemen in the basement to come.

I did not invite any of the executives,

just him.

When he arrived,

I introduced him to our executives.

I showed him every piece of equipment and I made sure

he got a nice lunch and that he was happy and

comfortable after the event I checked in with him and he

said he had never been treated so respectfully before.

And then,

you know what he did,

he called the executives,

actually a charge of the decision and said,

you buy from these people.

They deliver service,

unlike anyone else.

And I got that fortune 100 company.

Wow. How did you think of this?

It was my Last hope part of it is determination.

You have to believe you would be successful in any given

situation and do everything imaginable to make it happen.

They're going to be drawbacks.

This whole sale took an entire year,

but I finally got it.

You just have to keep it going.

I bet you celebrated that night.

That was a well earned one.

That's for sure.

The house painted too.

It was a nice bonus.

You said you had two stories and one was a funny

one. The funny one,

I went into a company and a woman no less was

treating me like dirt.

She was so rude to me.

I got back to the office and told her I could

not help her,

but I knew someone who could,

the person I knew who could was the most obnoxious salesperson

I ever had.

So I introduced the two of them expecting to have a

good laugh.

Well, the laugh got even better above later.

They both were on the phone calling me to thank me

for the introduction.

I believe they started dating.

Oh, my word.

That is funny,

But there's a little bit of a rascal in you LNR.

Oh, absolutely.

No denying that one.

That's funny.

What do you think?

You know,

a lot of our listeners have retail shops or they'll sell

at craft fairs,

that type of thing.

They're not necessarily going into the bigger corporations all the time.

Do you have any sales tips for them in terms of

how they work with customers who,

you know,

they've, they've come into a shop,

right? So it's not like you're going out and prospecting and

then going into self to them,

to a meeting.

But do you have any insights?

If it is the way I had just described that type

of situation?

Well, It'd be very similar,

you know,

very friendly,

thank people for coming in and you can adapt the question.

You know,

what caught your interest today?

We're so happy you came in.

What motivated you to come into our shop today?

Are you looking for something special and let them do the

talking Really?

What you've talked about this whole time has been just be

human and friendly and interested in other people.

That's the whole key.

You know,

I was at a leadership round table meeting.

I won't tell you which company.

And they thought it was all nonsense and they wouldn't let

me talk in eight hours.

I got two sentences out and that was it.

But you know what?

That company struggling,

you have to build relationships.

You have to follow up with people and for retail shops,

you have to have a reward or some sort,

you know,

like they have 10 visits or 10 purchases.

You get some kind of freebie or let them know about

events going on.

If you're having a holiday party,

maybe get their text ID and send messages to them,

ask if they'd like to keep in touch.

So all really to show for them coming in,

being a customer and being loyal to your shop.

Absolutely. And creating just a fun,

nice relationship where you want to go back all of us

by now,

I've heard the saying you do business with those that,

you know,

like and trust,

right? And the only way to do that is to speak

human, to human one-on-one with each other and to provide a

good experience.

That's the entire key to the whole thing.

People asked me how I came up with the name,

smooth sail.

My daughter actually named it a she's in marketing,

but she saw me almost always getting the sale that I

put my mind to.

And what it refers to as time went on is that

you build a returning and referring clientele and your clientele actually

becomes your sales force without having to pay them because they

start telling everybody else,

they know how wonderful you are and more people are driven

to your store.

Couldn't agree more.

So we've talked a lot about different strategies.

We've talked about different stories so that our listeners have a

nice takeaway in terms of what they could.

After they're done listening to the podcast,

how they could apply this to their business.

Can you consolidate this into three actionable strategies that you would

suggest people use to help increase their sales results?

I would review,

especially during holiday time,

well app between that and the beginning of the year,

it's kind of slow or at night you're mentally going through

everything. Start creating lists of people who expressed interest,

but you weren't able to follow up with think about people

who really intrigued you,

who compliment what you do.

Maybe you can partner on an event to further pick up

business. If you're not on social media,

maybe you can look into one of the platforms that intrigues

you the most.

But I advise that you always do goal setting,

have that large vision where you ultimately want to wind up

how you want to be remembered your legacy and then work

backwards, set,

putting in place the milestones and on a yearly basis,

the six months goal,

the monthly,

the weekly and daily and daily have a running task list.

So you don't waste time trying to remember what you need

to do next.

And you accomplish a whole lot more moving forward in business

development that way.

In fact,

to prove the point when I first started networking,

people used to say out loud in front of my face,

she's never going to make it.

That's ridiculous.

The way she operates.

Six months later,

I heard from the same people,

oh my God,

you're advancing your business at lightning speed followed by how are

you doing it?

So I created my laser goal setting system in the form

of a postcard with accelerators and it speaks to what I

shared. Okay.

So the three actionable strategies really are to make a list

of people that you might have wanted to get in touch

with, or possibly prospects that have come in.

Either online.

You're capturing them through email addresses,

coming into stores,

that type of thing,

and reach out to them so that even if they didn't

make a purchase,

they see that,

you know them,

you've identified them as a person.

And that starts developing a bond between you and your business

and that person.

Number two,

also look at what types of partners you might have.

Other people who might have a similar audience to you,

but sell different products.

Maybe you guys can put together events or something.

And as you do all those things that are more tangible

also think about what is that long-term goal.

You're trying to reach,

you know,

where are you trying to get to a year out,

five years out,

however you're planning on doing it and then back it up

from there.

Because if you don't set your long-term goal,

you kind of go Willy nilly and sometimes can get very

much off track because you don't even know what road you're

really on what your final destination is.

Exactly. Yeah.

The goal setting is key to sales and everything you do

That should probably be the first one,

not the third one.

We're going to move in now to the reflection section.

This is a look at you,

Eleanor, and what's helped you to be successful all along the

way. What natural trait do you have that you think has

helped you to succeed?

I observe observation is key to really understanding and learning more.

And I observe errors of others as well as the better

strategies they use.

And I learned from both.

Yeah, because you really,

you know,

you can learn from something that didn't go well,

just as possibly even better than you can learn from something

that's just smooth to use one of your branding words.

And the other thing I learned in this is to reassure

your listeners is I used to get very irritated with myself

when something didn't go right,

or didn't work out well.

But I learned that if you just go with the flow,

as they used to say and learn from the lesson,

what didn't happen something far better will come out from it

and launch you much further ahead than that original project.

Absolutely. And I think it's so easy to look at really

successful businesses.

And you kind of get this idea that,

well, they never stumbled along the way.

I mean,

look at where they are.

They just had their act together from day one and they've

grown and here they are very well known brand or whatever.

But if you dive underneath every single one of them has

made mistakes,

been in some serious issues,

you know,

had struggles that they weren't,

they didn't foresee coming.

But the key,

and this is what listeners I want you guys all to

remember is the key is that doesn't stop them in their

tracks. They figure out ways whether it's going to see the

guy in the basement who works on the equipment or whatever

the situation is,

they find other ways around an obstacle.

They don't just stop.

And it's the successful businesses that do that,

that make it to their final goal too many fall by

the wayside when they encounter struggles and challenges.

Alright, got off on a little tangent there,

Eleanor. That's an important one.

Yeah, absolutely.

So what tool or tools do you use in your normal

working day that help you advance your projects forward or help

you just stay balanced in your life?

You may laugh,

but I discovered the Twitter app.

I love Twitter because I'm normally very brief and communication.

So it meets my communication style.

And I have a lot of followers these days,

the app allows you to very quickly see who's following you

and to check if they're the type of people you want

to follow back,

it saves all kinds of time.

And I check it several times per day.

It would take longer on the desktop.

That's my favorite tool.

And I will remind everybody that Eleanor is known as one

of the brightest sales minds to follow on Twitter.

So what's your handle.

Let's just jump in here real quick while we're talking About

it. Oh,

thank you.

It's at smooth sail.

And in this case,

it's all one word and sail is S a L E.

All Right.

And so now we are going to put both of your

books in the show notes pages as well.

But what other books have you read lately that you think

our listeners could find value?

My all time Favorite book was written years ago by Napoleon

hill called think and grow rich.

And he had such great philosophy to share in that book

and interesting stories.

I highly recommend it.

Do you go back and read it from time to time?

I haven't,

but it's on my to-do list.

There you go.

You're too busy writing that third book.

I am.

We'll give busy listeners just as you're listening to the podcast

today, you can also listen to audio books with ease.

I've teamed up with audible for you to be able to

get an audio book,

just like think and grow rich.

And I know that on audio because I have it and

I've listened to it's fabulous recommendation for a book.

If you are interested in that,

all you have to do is go to gift biz,

book.com and make a selection.

You can get an audio book for free that's gift biz

book.com. Okay.

Eleanor, we're winding down here and I want to bring you

into our dare to dream question.

I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

This is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable Heights

that you would wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What is inside?

Thank you.

I have become the known speaker that I had foreseen years

ago. Believe it or not on a stretcher with a broken

neck, I was supposed to best case be paralyzed and we

know what the other possibility is.

But while they,

my family,

that was the case.

Two visions came to me with a gold light over my

body. And I saw that I was going to grow into

becoming an acclaim speaker,

helping communities far and wide,

the whole key underline,

that is community service.

So in terms of your gift,

that's speaking is going to happen.

In fact,

it's well on its way now.

And we've all noticed that primarily sales men are invited to

speak around the world,

but I'm on a path to begin with women being asked

to do the same.

And I have to tell you,

Eleanor, that story gives me chills.

And that could be a whole nother podcast in terms of

challenges and things that you've had to overcome.

If anyone wanted to know more about your story and what

you did on the physical end and having to come back

again, is that documented anywhere for us?

There's a short version on my website on the about page

smooth sail.net.

Okay, Fabulous.

And I know that we have had some of our listeners

who have had to stop doing some of the businesses they'd

done in the past because of physical challenges or health issues

or anything like that.

So I would encourage you to go over and read Eleanor's

story, look at where she is now,

a thriving,

successful business woman of her own,

right, with a huge dream out front.

That she's well on her way to achieving Eleanor.

We've already talked about your Twitter handle,

which is at smooth sail.

Where else could our listeners go to get in touch with

you? You May register for my blog on my website,

smooth sail again,

it's S M O O T H S a L e.net.

And if you're interested in sales training,

hire me as a speaker or would like some private coaching.

A sales technique is to repeat a number twice.

And I am on east coast time.

Now A woman who practices what she preaches.

How about that?

Well, gift biz listeners,

as you always know,

the show notes page will have all the information and it

will have her phone number listed only once that time,

because you can read it twice,

but all the other different ways that you can get in

touch or listen to,

or read or connect on Twitter or anything that you would

like to do with LNR.

So Eleanor,

thank you so much for all of the really great information

your stories are,

and we all learn better through stories.

So this was really helpful for us to understand the message

that you're trying to relay.

Appreciate all of that,

your insights,

the stories,

everything they,

your candle always burn bright.

Thank you,

Sue choice,

speaking with you today And happy to help your audience.

Anytime I may thank you so much.

Learn how to work smarter while developing and growing your business.

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