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There once was an apple farmer who owned a beautiful orchard. The orchard produced many apples, which the farmer used to make apple pies that were thought to be the tastiest around.

Each day, the farmer would pick apples from his orchard and bring them into the building where the pies were made by a crew of bakers. One day the headbaker told the farmer that he needed more apples to keep up with production. The farmer ran out of the building to his apple cart, but instead of pushing the cart in the direction of the orchard to pick apples, he turned to the road and pushed the cart three miles into town, where he paid full-price for apples at the market.

He brought the apples back to his bakers, who were very happy to see that he had returned so quickly with this new material for production. The next day his bakers needed additional apples, and, once again, instead of picking apples from his own orchard, he went into town and bought apples.

One day, the farmer's wife asked him what he was doing. “I'm buying apples for our pies. Look how many I bought today!”

“What about all of the apples on our trees?” she asked.

“Oh, I think I got most of them.”

She grabbed him by the hand and walked him out into the orchard. There, they saw that the branches of his trees were still heavy with apples, many of which were rotting and falling to the ground. They saw a squirrel nibbling on a piece of apple he had found under a tree.

“What you're doing is pretty silly,” said the farmer's wife.

“I gotta go. I need to get into town and buy some apples or we won't be able to keep up with our pie production.” He turned and ran to get his cart so he could get to the market before it closed.

Are you running your business like this farmer? Here are a couple questions to see if you are:

What percentage of your customers are giving you all of the business they could? Yes, of course, iy try to find new customers?


How do you compare?

Are you the farmer? How did you answer the questions I posed above? Are you buying a disproportionate number of new customers, while letting customers you already have “rot on the trees?”

Try this

Forward this newsletter to colleagues in your company. Ask them how much they think your company resembles the farmer. Have a discussion on this topic: What can we do to shift resources from buying apples, at a premium price, to farming our own orchard?

Consider what you and your teams would like to achieve over the next 90 days. To achieve greater sales results? More enjoyment at work? To feel more energized? To have more confidence in challenging situations? To bring the best you to your work everyday? For everyone to bring their best self to work each day?

Sound too good to be possible? It's all possible.

Too often you might know that something is holding you back from better results. But what is it? To get greater results you try doing things differently and doing different things. All good. Yet, what if it's unknowingly your thinking that's blocking your way to doing anything differently?

Based on neuroscience, quantum physics, energy psychology, epigenetic biology, behavioral kinesiology and acupuncture...new result-focused business programs are available. Heady stuff that boils down to this:

It's your thinking...your thoughts... that determine each and every result in your personal and professional life.

As Earl Nightingale said in his 1956 book The Strangest Secret, ‘what you think is what you become.'

Science is not only validating this statement, it's documenting that your thinking actually can change your biology. Amazing! But we'll be sticking to shifting your thinking to make the sale, to manage with greater ease and lead so others want to follow.

If you choose, you have the opportunity to rewire those old mental patterns that have been annoying you and yet persist. Really persist beyond usefulness.

With this new technology in a study with 635 sales reps, 35% were able to increase their results and 79% were able to increase their premium rates. This process also helps us to understand why my 15 year old daughter got in a 3 car crash the first time on the road with her second right turn - and how to avoid this in your life.

You too can learn how to Think Differently to Achieve Different Results... if you feel so inclined to have different results.

But hey, if you're feeling perfectly happy with your personal and professional results, keep doing what you've been doing. Same goes for your team. Yet, if you and your teams want more, more is possible.

Interested in greater results? All it takes is learning the fastest and most efficient way. Great combination that all starts with your thinking! Contact me at 303-439-0077 or terri@TerriNorvell.com to discuss your interest in leaning more.

Do you have an elevator pitch? It's that 30-second, well-crafted self-description you would deliver if you found yourself on an elevator with an important, prospective customer.

If you have an elevator pitch, tear it up into little pieces.

But don't throw those little pieces away.


Your elevator pitch has lots of valuable pieces in it, and you don't want to lose them. But when those pieces are combined together, they can turn into something that is long, boring and unmemorable. You're much better off thinking of the pieces of your elevator pitch as tools that you can use at appropriate times during conversations with customers.

When you look at the individual pieces of your elevator pitch, notice how each one of them can be developed into an interesting idea. Isn't there more to each piece than the short phrase allotted in your elevator pitch? For example, let's say you sell machinery that uses leading-edge technology, decreases your customers' production cycle times, and offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If you're talking to a prospect and you realize that uptime is a major issue for him, wouldn't you be better off having a deep discussion about uptime rather than just mentioning it as part of a well-crafted 30-second monologue? (And, by the way, if you were just delivering your elevator pitch, and not listening, you would not have learned that uptime is a major issue for him.)

Now, notice how the different pieces of your elevator pitch connect to each other. Can you diagram their inter-relationships? Could you have a rich conversation with a customer on any of these connections? For example, maybe your elevator pitch includes one phrase that refers to your team's expertise, and another that refers to how you help your clients anticipate market needs. Could you hold a deep, meaningful, 10-minute conversation with a prospective customer about the connection between your team's expertise and this ability to anticipate market needs? That conversation would last 20 times longer than a 30-second elevator pitch, and would focus on only two of the elements of the pitch. And, most importantly, it wouldn't be a pitch.

Nobody wants to hear your sales pitch. I don't care how amazing you are, how unique your product offering is or how much better you are than your competitors; nobody wants to hear your pitch. If you launch into your elevator pitch, your customer will tune out well before you're finished. He'll start thinking of his next appointment; he'll look for his car keys in his coat pocket, and he'll make a mental note to call his assistant to check on something, all while your mellifluous adjectives and well-turned phrases bounce off the elevator's walls, unnoticed by anyone but you.

Instead, think of how to have a 30-second elevator conversation, in which you engage your customer and judiciously bring in pieces of your elevator pitch at appropriate times. This means that you can't tell your entire story during this short meeting, but that's okay. Your objective is not to close the sale, but to earn the right to have another conversation.

At the end of the elevator ride, you want the prospect to have enough interest that he's willing to agree to that follow-up conversation. Maybe your follow-up conversation will happen in the building lobby, after the elevator doors open, or maybe it will be a phone call you schedule for the next day. During the follow-up conversation, you'll be able to weave in more pieces of your elevator pitch, and, as your relationship develops over subsequent conversations, your new customer will begin to form a rich story about you in his mind.

What has a better chance of earning you a follow-up conversation- a 30-second monologue in which you deliver every piece of your elevator pitch, or a 30-second conversation in which your prospective customer becomes intrigued by one thing he learns about you?

Don't lose sight of your goal in a first, chance meeting with a potential customer. Whether this meeting happens in an elevator, at your cousin's kid's wedding or in an exit row of an American Airlines 757, your real objective is to create a reason for a follow-up.

If you want customers to understand what you do and how you can help them, tear up your elevator pitch and weave its pieces into relationship-building encounters with your customers. That way, people may actually hear what you have to say.

Being the top sales producer in any type of sales environment often requires common basic human instincts. Some people have it and some don't, it's that simple in my experience. Here are some important traits you want in people to produce top sales results.

When looking for a top sales producer it is not always immediately obvious who will be a top producer. Finding and isolating top sales talent is a blessing because it's not usually easy.

So what are the characteristics or traits of a great salesperson you ask?

In my experience, first, they must have conviction, they must believe in the product or service they are selling or they won't be around very long. If they would buy the product or service for themselves, they usually are believers.

I like to find persons that have all the traits of a S.U.P.E.R. star. What is a "Superstar" sales person. S is for “self-starter”. If the sales person believes in the product or service, they will naturally have the capacity and creativity to instinctively “hunt” and find good prospects. U is for “unusual.” Top sales professionals often have unusual life experiences and can relate those personal experiences with their sales presentations in stories to prospective buyers. This talent makes for unusual and out of the ordinary presentations that are entertaining, humorous and interesting generally speaking. P is for “persistent.” Being persistent is a trait every superstar has to have because they don't get discouraged by “no's.” In fact, if they are talented, they view a “no” as a challenge and work harder to turn the “no” into a “yes.” I always recommend that if the prospect continues saying “no,” then let them go (give them some line as you would a large fish that isn't ready to be netted) for a week or two. After this short cooling period, call the prospect back and offer them a new benefit or idea that is fresh and often you'll find they can be turned around. E is for “enthusiastic.” Enthusiasm is a must have trait. You are looking for a person who genuinely gets excited about what they are offering. Enthusiasm and a positive mental attitude is a formula for measurable sales production. Often times, this characteristic outweighs the need for specific knowledge of the product or service being offered. While being enthusiastic however,keep in mind a top producer will be honest and not over-embellish or exaggerate as to create a liability to their organization. R is for “resourceful.” This is where a creative mind is especially valuable. Give the salesperson enough reign to be creative and think outside the box.

Top producers do not usually appreciate a regiment of rules that box them in. Too often, its management that overlooks what top producers understand and need. All sales organizations need processes and pipeline reports, but be thoughtful that you are not over-demanding reporting requirements. Also, as a Sales Manager, do not ask sales professionals to appear at unreasonably early morning meetings. Professional sales executives know that the most productive part of their day is mornings; the hours between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday seem to be consistently the best. Personally, I won't accept any interruptions from anyone during these times because they are the most productive for effective sales efforts. Some managers make the mistake of thinking that holding a Monday morning sales meeting is a great way to start off the week. In my experience, Monday meetings reduce prime time and are costly to the organization. Monday meetings may seem to be good for managers, but definitely they are not good for the seasoned sales pro. If you want to hold a sales meeting, hold it on either Thursday or Friday in the mid-afternoon.

A top producer is an awesome listener and knows how to pick up important cue's from their prospects. For example, when talking on the phone to a prospect, whenever a salesperson hears any hint of comment from the prospect, the salesperson needs to immediately stop talking and pause to give the prospect the opportunity to voice their opinion or thoughts. I've often observed sales people who were so focused on delivering their message and wanting to say what they felt was needed that they forgot that the prospect either wasn't interested in their view or they lost sight of what was important to the prospect. My sales career has been exclusively focused on sales calls to CEO's or C-Level executives. In my opinion, more affluent busy executives are interested in what benefits them and their area of responsibility and relevancy only. Don't give a sermon, avoid the fluff and always remember to be respectful of a prospects time.

As a final point here, remember to facilitate networking your customers. Making introductions and connections between customers is invaluable to you and them, particularly when they can perform services between each other to further leverage their sales efforts and improve their outcomes respectively.