Articles By Steve Waterhouse

70 Feet down and sinking fast!... | Leaving your comfort zone
Saturday afternoon I was scuba diving off of West Palm Beach, Florida (in front of Donald Trumps new place with the 8,000 square foot living room). The seas were a little rough but otherwise life on the boat “The Wetter, The Better” was pretty good. The first dive after lunch was supposed to be a drift dive into 70 feet of water. That’s deeper than I had ever been before, but I had a good team with me so I was ready. After we all entered the water and signaled OK, we all started down.

A plane guy walks into a car company… | Crossing industries
Ok, it’s a bad start to a joke, but Ford’s hiring of a Boeing executive as CEO is representative of one of the biggest problems facing sales professionals today. There was a time when senior management was comprised of people who had grown up in that business and had a deep understanding and love of it. Those people were wowed by your latest widget or version and instantly saw the value you brought to their company.

Are you invincible? | Listen to the right voices
My friends Pam and Steve are incurable Philadelphia Eagles fans. That’s how I found myself at the movies on Saturday watching “Invincible”. It’s the story of Vince Patelle, a working stiff from South Philly who answered an open call for players and ended up playing for the Eagles.

I’m losing touch quickly… | Communicate like the client
A recent study showed that IM'ing or Instant Messaging is now five times more popular with young people than E-Mail! Man am I out of it. I was one of the first to use E-mail back when it was a secret military communications tool. Now I risk being out of touch with my own kids.

Million dollar mistake? | Our clients look to us for more than just information
I just watched a ridiculous TV show. Well, it might not be ridiculous if you like to see examples of very poor sales skills. In this ‘reality show’ called “Million Dollar Listing”, real estate agents try to get big listings in Malibu, CA and then attempt to sell the houses.

The UPS slip was stuck to the door… | You are auditioning with every customer contact
There is nothing more frustrating than coming home to find that you have missed an important delivery. Ok, there is one thing more frustrating…BEING HOME and finding that you missed the driver and the delivery is your new laptop!

You have to trim if you want to grow… | To get to the top leave something behind
It cooled down a little this evening (under 90!) so Gina and I spent a few minutes trimming the bushes and palm trees in the front of the house. It’s amazing how cutting back a few branches can make the rest of the plant grow healthier. The plan refocuses its attention on the remaining parts and within days you see the difference.

1.65 Billion Dollars! | Overcoming price objections
For those of you who have a tough time quoting your list price to your customers because you are afraid of what they might say, try this exercise: Ask someone for $1.65B and try not to choke!

They won’t tell me anything | Why we need to ask questions
I spent two days with a great new client this week. These were bright people who knew their product cold but wanted to increase their closing ratio. As a result, they asked me to help them with their sales presentations. Smart move! The presentation is where the rubber meets the road in sales and a small improvement can yield significant results.

We have it all backwards | How to hire better
Yesterday I was working with a client who needed to hire a few new sales people. He had asked me to help him since he was not pleased with the results of he previous searches. I asked, “Bob, what is your current process?” and here is what he said:

Stop Throwing Cans! | What your tech can teach you
Tim was dumbfounded at their request… Two months ago, I had the pleasure of working with the technical training group for one of my clients. You know these guys. They are the techies who teach your customers how to use the software and operate the equipment we sell. They often come along on demos just to make sure we don’t make total fools of ourselves. Unfortunately, too often we fear that they will stray from their role and start talking. Who knows what will happen then!