Sharon Drew Morgen

What are questions for?

Feb 18, 2010 Sales Related View Comments

Lately, I’ve noticed many people using the term Facilitative Questions when they really mean facilitating questions: they are using questions to help people think things through, to add some new thoughts that might persuade or influence them to consider different options. In sales, they are often used to get prospects to think about ‘needs’ in a way that might influence them to consider purchasing the potential vendor’s solution.

Facilitative Questions are used to help people re-weight their unconscious criteria so they can make new decisions that possibly achieve a new level of excellence according to their own standards – they do not influence, manipulate, push/pull, or bias in any way. Nor do they use ‘information’ as a basis.

Information – having it, sharing it, or receiving it – does not teach someone how to make a new decision: we (and our prospects) make decisions in accordance with our unique, private, weighted criteria that are sometimes (often) unconscious. And until or unless any new decision choices are agreed to by our status quo, no change will take place no matter how necessary. Read More..

Aging, The Beatles, and Me

Feb 16, 2010 Random Thoughts View Comments

Today is my birthday. I am 64 years old. It sounds so very old, but frankly, doesn’t feel any differently than 30: I’m fit, I’m gorgeous, I’m fun, and I’m the same cranky pain-in-the-ass I’ve always been, maybe worse.

In 1967 when the Beatles released “When I’m 64″ I was in my last year of college. I remember sitting around with my friends listening to the whole Sgt. Pepper album, and when that song came up, we all looked at each other and giggled. Would we still be alive then? Would we be old and feeble like our parents? Would we even want to get that old – after all, certainly the pleasures of life would have been behind us by then, and we’d probably have nothing to look forward to.

Well, I’m here to tell you that getting ‘old’ is absolutely cool. I look better (a few elegant wrinkles and pounds aside), I understand life better, I am kinder AND crankier, more flexible AND clearer, more determined AND more easy going. I’ve never stopped dating the same age men (45ish) so as a single woman I just get luckier a bit less often, but just a bit. Read More..

The Basis of Sales Has Remained Stagnant

Feb 15, 2010 Sales Related, Top Posts View Comments

Did I get your attention? Good. Because I’m serious.

Most of you would laugh, tell me I’m wrong, that the sales model has been shifting and that the Internet has ‘changed everything.’ But what, exactly, has it changed?

I believe that basically, sales has not changed since the beginning. Sure, the bells and whistles have changed: it’s far, far easier to get leads and interest; it’s much simpler to get your message out; it’s much quicker to find out whatever you need to find out about prospects. It seems to appear as if buyer’s buying decisions are different (they aren’t, we just know more). But all of this leads to… leads to what? Read More..

Who are the decision makers?

Feb 12, 2010 Sales Related View Comments

I once was told that there are three things a sales person needs to know: when will a prospect buy, who are the decision makers, and how much money will they give me.

I wonder how true this is now. Or if these are the most appropriate benchmark needs of a seller. Let’s go through each of them:

1. When will a prospect buy?

People buy only when their entire decision team figures out how to bring in something new while ensuring that the status quo (the people, policies, initiatives, partners, rules, relationships, etc.) won’t be severely affected by the new solution coming in. It’s got absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with their need – they’ve done without trying to ‘fix’ the problem this long, why do they need to hurry up and potentially risk some sort of fallout? We are the ones who want them to hurry up. We notice a ‘problem’ and we have the perfect ’solution’ of course, and think that there is obviously a need for an immediate resolution. Read More..

Big, Bold, and Brassy

Feb 11, 2010 Random Thoughts View Comments

This is one of those blog posts that’s really personal. There will be another one coming next Tuesday when it’s my birthday (I always philosophize on my birthday, so be warned). But today’s will be just plain obnoxious.

My friend Clayton Shold, who runs the best Sales site on the Webisphere, seems to be having a bit of fun. He either got wind that it was my birthday, or was just in a mood. But he’s got me plastered all over his site in a rather bold, brassy way. For the record, I purchased advertising from him. But what he did was nothing short of fun: Salesopedia home page As if I’m not large enough! Ha. I can just see Clayton giggling as he put up my photos.

But make no mistake: the articles on here – mine, and the ones he offers on the site – are important ones, and Clayton does an amazing job (even when not having some fun) at gathering some of the best thinkers, the best articles, and the best ideas in the business. I wish more people would follow his lead: take care of the people you respect, make them look good, and then find the people who want to take the knowledge and run with it. Clayton and Salesopedia have a way of making it all happen so elegantly (except for today, when it’s big, bold, and brassy).

My presence aside, put Salesopedia on your radar screen and favorite’s list. It deserves to be there. You’ll get a lot out of it. And maybe, if you’re very good, Clayton will make you larger than life one day also.

Shirley, Gold’s Gym, and the problem of group disappointment

Feb 9, 2010 Random Thoughts View Comments

I went to the gym to my regular workout, which includes an hour doing an aerobic workout with the beloved instructor Shirley. Shirley is this little tiny woman who has obviously worked out her whole life. She’s buff and compact, cheerful and friendly. She is conscientious, and thoughful, and responsible, and fun. And every Monday evening as I leave, I look forward to her saying, “I love you Sharon Drew!”

But tonight, Shirley wasn’t there, nor will she ever be again, apparently. Where did she go? She was fired. Why? No one knows. After years and years of training 15 classes a week, she was gone, leaving behind hundreds of angry, confused people who love her and depend on her.

Gold’s Gym had no comment. It seems that the day before people picketed; hundreds of emails brought a form letter that says nothing; people in her classes wrote petitions. Nothing. I know of at least 2 people who quit their memberships because Shirley wasn’t there.

Here is the question: how should a large behemouth like Gold’s Gym do crisis management when they have to let go a beloved icon? How can they handle it in a way that doesn’t leave behind angry people? How can they maintain their corporate brand when so many people are saying bad things, starting rumors, denigrating their management here in Austin.

Let’s discuss this. Send me some comments. There must be a way through this so there is a win-win. Or is it possible that sometimes, no matter what the intentions, there is just no win?