The next article features a transcript from Clay Clark (US Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year) and Mickey Michalec (top regional pharmaceutical sales rep) talking about why everyone has to do sales on one of the best business schools in Florida, Thrive15.com!
Clay: I know for me, for sales, I had a turning point where I just got mad. Lex was his name L-E-X. Lex. He would just be like, all right. Such and such has seven deals and Mister Clark you have zero deals. What’s wrong? I was just like, I’m going to shut him up. It seems like we all have to, some point, we have to get engaged.
Mickey: Sure.
Clay: Have you seen salespeople that aren’t engaged?
Mickey: Yeah. I have. I’ve been a part of many teams. I’ve been a part of guys that just needed someone to ask them so they could have value and a piece of the pie. They wanted someone to care about what they had to say. Until someone asked them, they weren’t going to be a part of the team.
Clay: If you’re talking to me right now and I’m drifting in sales, I’m not doing well at sales, what do you tell me? How do I get out of that funk?
Mickey: Right now, first of all, I’m going to say, hey do you want to be in this? Let’s go ahead and cut bait. If you don’t want to be in sales, move out of the way because someone else does. If you’re not willing to commit to this, I don’t have time for you. All right? Let’s go ahead and let’s be blunt honest about it. I’m a direct personality. If you don’t want to be here, go. Choose what you want to do, but I want to be here. You can either get on my ship and we can sail to the Caribbean and have a great time, or you can get off and go back to whatever cold place you want to go to and go ahead and have your little pity party over there. All right? You’re going to make that choice right now though.
Clay: Yeah. Yeah. We’re going to the Caribbean or they’re going to the pity party.
Mickey: Yeah.
Clay: Okay. Now, the third big idea here as we’re learning sales, the thing that no one wants to do but everyone has to do. You can’t even give away a great idea if you can’t sell it. Here’s a quote from Jerry Vass, the author of Soft Selling In a Hard World. He says, “Even if you have a world class idea and want to give it away for the good of humanity, you will have to sell the concept. If you can’t sell it, you’ll be stuck with your idea, poorer for your brilliance and generosity.”
I know that you’ve worked with doctors over the years and countless … Business owners with countless big ideas. Have you ever seen an incredible idea that’s just sitting dormant because the inventor, the business owner, the doctor, is just unwilling to learn sales? Have you seen this?
Mickey: Yeah. I see it a lot. I see it every day. I see it from my counterparts, I see it from people that are in my own business, I see it from people in other businesses. They just don’t want to take the initiative to make it something special.
Clay: Do you think its that they fear rejection?
Mickey: That’s a huge fear of a lot of people. What’s the worst thing that could happen? If attitude is a choice and somebody tells you no, what’s the worst that could happen?
Clay: I think a lot of times what we’re afraid of that maybe they’ll follow our caller ID back to the office and bludgeon us with a weapon.
Mickey: Yeah. Let me tell you this. If I go to a doctor and I say, hey I think this is going to be great, this is going to help your patient and they go, you’re crazy. Get out. Okay. He’s not going to burn my house down. I still have a family, I still have a job. You know what? I got the answer no today.
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Clay: I’m going to pretend I’m you for a second.
Mickey: Sure.
Clay: Go ahead and unload all the crazy things that doctors have said to you when they said no. I want-
Mickey: I don’t know why you’re in here wasting my time. Why did you even come by here? I don’t believe in what you do. It’s not approved. You can’t come by here and do this. What is this, snake oil? What do you do? What are you trying to sell here? You guys take up so much of our time. You’re the problem with society right now. You guys come by and you leave these pens and you just think you can manipulate what people think about you. It’s not true. Go back, go to your company and tell them not to ever come back and call me again.
Clay: Do you process that as a need for more information?
Mickey: I do.
Clay: Have you ever got a deal from a guy who’s been that mean to you?
Mickey: Absolutely.
Clay: Really? Can you tell me a story of one. Just kind of story time with Mickey Michalec?
Mickey: I can. I can.
Clay: Okay go ahead and give me one.
Mickey: This is a doctor in a rural town. I had my manager riding with me. Of course, you got that manager there, you’d better ask for the business. All right? That’s the thing. You got to ask for business. At the end of the call-
Clay: He is the taser.
Mickey: You ask for business. Right? We practiced, we were holding the matchstick out in the car. Got to get that word out. We’re saying what we have to. I go in here and I see this doctor. I know he’s a military doctor. I go in there. I’ve got a good relationship with him, I thought was great, so I said, hey let’s go see this guy. My boss was with me. We go in there.
The call goes good. I’m talking to him about my product, here’s the feature benefit, I clarify, is there any questions you have. I get to the point where I ask for the business.
Clay: Oh boy.
Mickey: I ask the doctor, so doctor, when that next patient comes in with this need, will you use my product? He says, stop right now. You quit telling him to say that to doctors. Right to my manager. Inside I’m thinking, yes he told my manager we’re not going to have to keep asking these silly questions that he does. All of a sudden he comes back to me and he said, why did you change because he was with you? I went, oh wait a minute. This was a moment where he gave me an opportunity to stop and say, that’s not really me.
We turned and we said, can we do this over again? He goes, yeah let’s- sure. He said, hey Mick. Good to see you again, be real with me today. I said, hey. Here’s the product I have. I’m not asking for every patient today, but what I’m asking for is will you leave this as an open option for them if there’s a need for it? He said yes. Done.