Warren Greshes Talks Prospecting and Social Media on “The Massimo Minute”

ROD MASSIMO:

Good afternoon this is Rod Santomassimo of the Massimo Group and welcome to this version of the Massimo Minute. This month we have a very, very special guest, Mr. Warren Greshes, who I am fond to say is a friend of mine.  He is someone that a client had introduced me to and told me, “Rod if you are in the North Carolina area, you have to reach out to Mr. Warren Greshes because he is an international phenomenon”.  Of course I was curious to see who this gentleman is, so I reached out, gave him a call and several lunches later I am now proud to call him a friend.  Warren is a professional speaker.  If you haven’t read it, you should, he is the author of the best selling Best Damn Sales Book Ever, Sixteen Rock Solid Rules for Achieving Sales Success. Warren is a keynote speaker and speaks on issues such as customer service, sales and leadership. So Warren, welcome to the Massimo Minute and thank you very much for your time.

WARREN GRESHES:

Oh, no problem.  Glad to be with you Rod.

ROD MASSIMO:

It is certainly a privilege of us and our audience.  The few minutes we have, Warren, it really hit home in today’s market place specifically with commercial real estate brokers.  It is an extremely challenging market.  This is probably true for any sales in particular.  But tell me if you can, what are you seeing out there in the market place and certainly I am finding more and more people, I don’t want to say that it is a crutch while using and leveraging other tools such as social media, and certainly other platforms to try to get their message out.  I surely think the social media has a place. Let me ask you, where this fits into the total prospecting package from the sales perspective?

WARREN GRESHES:

I agree with you.  Social media has a place and has a definite place in today’s sales effort and today’s prospecting efforts.  It is a great way to reach a lot of people in a very short period of time. It’s a great way to set yourself up as an expert.  It’s a great way to find prospects. It’s a great way to focus in on specific niches in the market place.

But what I just said is not selling.  What I just said is marketing.  There is a big difference between marketing and selling. I’m not an expert in social media, and I don’t use it as well as I could. I realize it is a real hot topic these days and I really see the benefit in using it;  but I’m really scared that a lot of sales people are using social media as a crutch to not sell, to not have to talk to anybody one-on-one, to not have to pick up the phone, to not to have to get in front of somebody.  There are a lot of pit falls in social media. Just as there are many pit falls in e-mail, which is another crutch. Sales people love e-mail, sales people love social media; because, they are led to believe that if you use this you never actually have to go through the hard part of selling which is the picking up of the phone, or getting in front of people.  In other words you never actually hear anybody say no via Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, or on e-mail.

ROD MASSIMO:

Very, very true. That is one of the reasons that most sales people utilize those platforms. But I agree too, it is certainly marketing vs. advertising something we use here in the Massimo Group.  We say it is presence vs. prospecting. You know selling vs. not selling, creating that market presence.  And certainly production goes nowhere just with the marketing side. You need to prospect, you absolutely need to prospect.

WARREN GRESHES

Rod, you and I had this discussion and we talked about this. We talked about presence and prospecting.  I really like that term you coined, presence and prospecting, I think that’s great. But remember I posed the question to you.  If you had to go without one, what would you be better off going without; presence or prospecting?

ROD MASSIMO:

Well if you had to go without one, if I had to choose I would go without presence. Because you can’t go without prospecting.

WARREN GRESHES:

Right. You cannot go without prospecting. I know people who have gotten clients on Linkedin and I know they have gotten clients through social media. But I have to tell you something, nothing takes the place of prospecting. . . You know my father-in-law is a salesman and he is 84 years old. He doesn’t work full-time anymore, but he is still out there one day a week.  And you know what; he is having a terrific year.  And I don’t know how the heck he is doing it because he doesn’t have a computer, he doesn’t have a PDA, he doesn’t have a Twitter account, he doesn’t even know how to use a computer, he’s not on Linkedin, and he is not on Facebook.  You know what he does? He gets in his car and he goes to see prospects, he goes to see clients, he’s on the phone with them all the time. And somehow this guy manages to do business without a Facebook account.  How the heck is he doing that?

ROD MASSIMO:

How the heck is he doing it? At that age kudos to him.  Hey Warren a few minutes left and I don’t want you to give away all your 16 golden rules

I think people need to certainly take a look at what you have to say. But I want to ask you a question. If you can

WARREN GRESHES:

Sure.

ROD MASSIMO:

Please give me three key ideas as far as if I want to prospect more effectively. What are some ideas you would have?

WARREN GRESHES:

Okay.  Well first of all, know who you want to call before you call. Very simple. If you are going to be making prospecting calls via telephone or in person, your list should be set up the night before.  I find a lot of sales people make a call then they look up who they are going to call next, and they make a call, and then they look up who they are going to call next, and they make a call.  They do this over and over again. And basically all they do is waste time.

You should also focus on who you want to deal with. Have a customer profile put together and know exactly who you want to call, what kind of companies, what kind of people, who are you looking for.  In our business, we are looking for VPs of sales.  We are looking for sales executives. Why? Because most of my audiences I speak in front of are sales people. I speak at a lot of annual sales meetings, big incentive conferences, and who’s going to make the decision on that.  It’s usually a sales executive. Who’s going to make the decision on what it is you are selling on your commercial real estate business, who is going to make the decision to buy it from you.  And you want to first of all figure out where those decision makers are. That’s where things like Linkedin can come in.  They can help you find those decision makers.  Once you find those decision makers then you’ve got to call them and then you’ve got to set the appointments.

Do your calls every single day.  I would rather see you do a little bit a lot rather than a lot a little bit. In other words, if you are going to make 50 prospecting calls a week, I’d rather see you make 10 prospecting calls a day five days a week than 50 calls once a week. Because if you do 50 calls once a week, you are not developing a habit.  All that is going to happen is you are going to really dread that one day.

It’s like working out.  If you work out a little bit every single day you are going to get in shape. If you work out a lot once a week you are just going to say, oh god who the heck wants to do this.  The night before you are going to be dreading the next day and eventually you are going to say oh the hell with it. And the only time, as well we all know, the only time you fail is when you give up.  So do a little bit a lot, not a lot a little bit. You know when I first started in sales, we didn’t have cell phones, we didn’t have laptops, we didn’t have all this technology.

I know I am sounding old here: but the fact of the matter is when I was on the road, when I was going on appointments I would stop at pay phones to make calls. I always had a list with me, a hand-written list of at least ten people I could call while I was in my car.  Now with cell phones and PDAs, I mean I got a blackberry here, boy I could do it while I am driving.  I know you are not suppose to. I am not encouraging that, but you can do it while you are driving.  There is no excuse not to make the calls. The biggest part of prospecting is you have to do it every day.  You know there is an old saying, “throw enough against the wall, something is going to stick.”  I’m a big believer in that. The single biggest reason that sales people do not do business is because they do not talk to enough people.  I’m not telling you don’t do e-mail, I’m not telling you don’t do Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook, but they are in addition to.  They are not in lieu of.

ROD MASSIMO:

Very strong, very applicable and so, so accurate. Warren Greshes, thank you so much for your time.  But one last question before I let you go. I’m sure there are many people out there saying wow how this guy got me motivated.  How can we get more? So Warren, is there a website? Is there something we can look for in regards you, your books, and your keynote speeches?  Where can we direct them to?

WARREN GRESHES

Well, my website is www.greshes.com obviously.  And my e-mail address is warren@greshes.com.  And so you can either e-mail me, go to my website, contact me through my website.  You can find my book on there. There is a link to my Amazon page right from my website.  All the information you need about my services and me.

ROD MASSIMO:

So there you go, a man who actually practices what he preaches.  He does utilize social media but he also prospects proactively and aggressively. So Warren Greshes thank you very, very much. And till next time this is Rod Santomassimo with the Massimo Minute. Talk with you soon.