At the risk of sounding old again, I’m going to rant on another “new way of doing business” topic that has been irking me, and one which I think has implications for salespeople.

I see a lot of entrepreneurs starting companies because I work with all of the investors that fund them:  VC’s and Angel Investors.

What boggles my mind, is that I see decent entrepreneurs who get their big chance to pitch in front of the best VC’s, or give a presentation in front of thousands of people.  Its their chance to make the best impression they can as to why someone should believe in them and why someone might give them millions of dollars.

And… they don’t tuck in their shirt!  Or in general are dressed like a total slob.  Hair unkempt, torn jeans, sandles, sweatshirts, or worse.  Seriously?  Is this “new way of doing business” really professional enough. Am I supposed to believe that you care about your business and your customers when you don’t care enough to comb your hair?  If you can’t put on a pair of pants without holes in them for ME, then how do you present yourself to your customers and prospects?

Am I supposed to believe you are brilliant because you are a slob?

How does this relate to sales?  Sales people that dress and think professional, perform better.  This doesn’t mean three piece suit or even a tie.  A nice pair of pants, and a golf shirt (tucked in) – at least shows that you care enough to be a professional.  Is this “old” thinking?  Perhaps – but since I consistently demolish quota – perhaps there is some logic to it?

My particular sales expertise is for start-ups and if you work in a start-up, you need every bit of professionalism that you can grab.  Already you are at a disadvantage because people are nervous that you will survive, that your product actually does what it says, etc.  Do you need to add another question mark over your head?

Your management should subscribe to this as well.  At one firm I worked at,   I asked my CEO to come to one of my closing meetings at a very large well known brand, and he showed up hair uncombed, wrinkled shirt (untucked), jeans, and flip flops (not even nice sandals).  I don’t think I need to say that this company was not very successful despite the fact that I had lined up some very high profile deals.  Whatever credibility and momentum I had built was quickly erased when my CEO didn’t care enough about the prospect to believe that he needed to make himself presentable.

In general, I believe that salespeople subscribe to this, but I see a trend that will ultimately become an opportunity for the best salespeople.  Be professional.  Dress professional.  You ARE the face of your company to many people.

Someone asked me recently what I thought was the biggest impediment to sales.

I thought for quite some time on this.  Would I say, bad presentation?  Would I say selling to the wrong people?  What about not asking for the sale – I’ve blogged on that..?  Or even something out of the sales persons control like price or packaging or branding…

After much thought, I came down to one common theme on what I think kills a sale and also kills a salesperson:

FEAR

I think that perhaps there are about 20 posts I can do on fear – and I will indeed expand on this, but the common theme is this:  Fear can cause you the most damage in the sales cycle.

Prospecting:  You can’t be afraid to call anyone and everyone to get your your meeting.  Once I was trying to get a meeting at Pepsi.  I called 20 VP’s and spoke to 20 assistants before I decided to call the CMO and his assistant got me someone that granted me a meeting.  (The switchboard operator and I actually became very friendly!)  I wound up doing millions of dollars in business with them.    Imagine if I had been too scared to actually call into the CMO office.

Presenting:  Once you get the meeting, you need to portray confidence.  If you are afraid during your presentation, it will not instill confidence in the product.  You have to believe that you can change the prospects world – that you will save them money – or somehow make their lives better.  Then, you need to have the confidence to make them understand that.  Fear in a sales presentation will come across, and you are very unlikely to get the sale.

Closing: You can’t be afraid to ask for the sale.  Ask for the order and don’t let the prospect drag you along on free trials, or continual meetings.  If they can’t make a decision, move on.  Very often its their OWN fear in asking for the necessary funding, or in upsetting you, that is why you aren’t closing it.  Force the issue.

Negotiating: This one pretty much goes without saying.  Your commission most likely depends on you getting the mot money you can for the deal.  Don’t be afraid to say no to a price break or a give away – or ask for something in return like a longer contract term.  Negotiating and fear are polar opposites.

Post Sale:  Your customer may come back to you wanting more – or trying to change the rules of the deal in order to get out of paying, etc.  You can’t be afraid to stand up to your customer.  And on the flipside, if your company is changing the rules or not honoring the agreement, you can’t be afraid to stick up FOR your customer.

Fear and sales do not mix, and if you are overcome with fear then you will not be successful as a salesperson.  Do what you need to do, and don’t be afraid.

At the urging of some of my staff, I’ve recently signed up for Twitter and started following people on it – and attempted to use it every now and then. I’ve also gotten more and more into commenting on blogs and also on places like LinkedIn and other sites.

Perhaps I’m just too old and out of the loop on total transparancy, but I think there is a very distinct line between being transparent and using discretion in your comments.

As a salesperson, you are on display all the time, and you never want to frustrate or anger your clients – especially on topics unrelated to the sales process. Would you sit in a room with a prospect, not knowing his/her political views and start ranting about a particular issue? Or would you worse, use foul language and slurs against people in the political landscape? If you are a smart salesperson, of course you wouldn’t.

Yet, I see intelligent business people who have public twitter profiles, post regularly on blogs and more spouting off the same type of stuff – in that type of tone. As a salesperson, you need to understand that in today’s world everything you post, tweet, send or otherwise place on the internet is fair game in your sales career. Have an opinion… feel free to even comment on it in a constructive way… but be careful how you start wording things and making fun of things, and in the language you use. It can make you seem juvenile and undisciplined. And worse, it can anger and upset your prospects. You need to use discretion in what you spout out.

This also extends to flikr profiles and other places where your information is displayed. No prospect wants to google you, or look you up on MySpace and hear about your conquests, or drinking binges, or worse. It can kill your sales prospects – and you may not even know why!

I think about the time I sold a customer and he and I laughed about why he chose me over the competition. He went onto MySpace and searched on the salesperson from my competition. He found a page where this man and his wife were advertising themselves as swingers. He didn’t feel comfortable doing business with someone like that, and the deal was mine. (I don’t even have a MySpace account)  To be honest, for what the customer needed, my competitions product was better, yet I still got the deal because my competitor didn’t use discretion.

Are you losing deals because you are sending out flames about the presidential candidate you hate? Are customers chuckling about you behind your back because of pictures of you at that weekend party while they sign with your competition? Do you not get a callback from a prospect because a google search turns up information that in unflattering?

Just like you should not vomit information on your customers, you should not vomit about your life and your opinions. Every comment you make, every thing you post, is part of your sales career. Make sure you remember that as you click “submit.”