Glenn Poulos on Never Sit in the Lobby

Welcome to the session.

Glenn Poulos   

Thanks, Subhanjan. I appreciate the introduction and I’m very happy to be here. Welcome to everybody joining the event today. It should be a great event, so I’m looking forward to it. It’s always nice to be one of the people who get to start out the day when everyone’s fresh. And so, yeah, I’m happy about that as well. I believe I have about 18 to 20 minutes here. And as you’ll come to see from the title of the book, I have fifty-seven tips. I would either have to speak very quickly or maybe reduce it down to some of the most important ones. So that’s what I’ve decided to do. And so my goal for today is to have you all walk away with the message, the theme of my book, which I like to say is how to get, act, and stay in front of customers and how to be a pleasure to do business with always. That’s the goal of my book. That’s the goal of my company. That’s how I grew my business. Ultimately, I sold the business. That’s probably a story for a different day. But a funny thing, I ran it for 15 years, then I sold it.

And now I’m an employee of a large private equity firm, running the business. But during the pandemic, I wrote a book, and I’d like to share with you today some of the top tips from my book, “Never Sit in the Lobby: 57 Winning Sales Factors to Grow a Business and Build Your Career Selling.” So without further ado, I will head into tip number one. I’m just going to stop presenting because it’s not about my PDF presentation. It’s more about the book and the message. Tip number one comes back. I made it up back in the ’80s, as you’ll find out from the titles: “Never Fax the Fax or Ship the Shit.” So hopefully, they don’t have to bleep out that bad word. I think that’s the only one in my presentation. I learned back then that when I needed to send something to a customer, I didn’t want to fax it, I didn’t want to email it, I didn’t want to mail it via Purolator or FedEx. And I definitely— if it was a product, I definitely did not want to ship it to the customer. So what I mean by “Never Fax the Fax or Ship the Shit” is that if you have an opportunity to give something to a customer, you want to hand-deliver it.

Obviously, if you’re in New York and the customer is in California, that’s problematic. But I’m talking to people who deal with their customers in their territory, and they’re normally out visiting customers on a regular basis. Any opportunity to visit the customer is infinitely better than mailing something or emailing it to them. Although that may feel convenient and comfortable for you, it’s not better for your business, and it’s definitely not better for your relationship. That is a rule that I follow to this day, and people often question me on it. But to me, it holds true. And some of the other rules that I’m going to share with you, you’ll realize that they can’t happen unless you’re in front of the customer. So tip number two from the book is that a lot of times, sales guys will come to me and they’ll say, “Hey, do you want me to go visit the customer, but I don’t really have anything to say to them? What do I do and why do I go and see this customer?” So tip number two is when you go to a customer, always have something in your hand and something on your mind.

You never want to show up empty-handed. It might be the quotation they asked for, it might be product literature, marketing materials. It might be, as we love in Canada, donuts. I have a rule: never deliver donuts after 10:30 because they’ll just spoil lunch. But nonetheless, donuts— those could be a giveaway. Maybe you’re giving away water bottles or little notebooks or pens, pencils, mouse pads, things like that. Always have something in your hand and always have something very specific in your mind to talk to them about. By arming yourself with these two things, you have both an icebreaker and a conversation starter. And of course, I go into great detail about that in the book. There’s not enough time today to do that. But this is what I have. Whenever a sales guy says to me, “Hey, what do I do?” I say, “Hey, just show up with something in your hand and something in your mind.” So that’s tip number two.

Tip number three, of course, is my favorite tip because it is the title of the book. And tip number three is “Never Sit in the Lobby.” And so a young fellow who bought the book asked me before he read it, “So if I don’t sit in the lobby, do I sit in my car?” And I’m like, “No, you don’t sit at all. You’re supposed to stand in the lobby, right?” So when you show up to a customer, you announce yourself. Nowadays, there may not be a receptionist; it might be a phone. You phone up to the customer to ask them to come down to you. But once you’ve done that and you’re waiting for the customer, do not sit down, do not pull out your phone, do not walk around the building looking at their awards and things on the wall. Just be waiting, attentive at the door they’re likely to walk through, so that when they walk through, you’re ready to shake their hand and say, “Nice to meet you.” Something in my hand, something in my mind. The worst thing is when you’re a salesperson and you’re distracted: you’re on your phone, you’re sitting on their nice leather chair, and you don’t even realize the person walks in, and they’re like, “Excuse me, Glenn. Are you Glenn?” I’m chatting with my wife about what’s for dinner. It’s not a good look. You then have to rise up from a chair to greet the customer. Again, they’re towering over you.

Again, for me, it’s all about how I look and how I act when I’m in front of the customer. I find this to be a very powerful tool and it keeps me on point. Of course, I don’t want to show up too early because I don’t want to be standing in the lobby for 10 minutes, so I show up on time. I call them from the lobby and I wait for them and I greet them. That is tip number three.

Tip number four— this one is a little strange, and people raise their eyebrows, but tip number four is when you’re in the lobby and you’re talking to the person, I always ask them for a mini-tour. And people are like, “A mini-tour? What in the world is a mini-tour?” And I’m like, “Well, a mini-tour is a tour that’s mini.” And so people are like, “Okay, what’s that?” And I’m like, “Well, if you’ve ever been on a tour, they’re very long, and by the time you’re halfway through it, you’re sleeping. A mini-tour is basically, ‘Hey, I’m here to show you something new. I want to get into your building. I want to see your new warehouse, your new production area, your new engineering lab, your new parking system, your new lobby—whatever area of the building your products or services cater to”. You want to ask them for a quick look around their building. “Can I get a quick tour of the lab? Can I get a quick tour of the warehouse?” You’ll be surprised; most often, they will agree. This allows you many advantages, which will come out here shortly. If people are a little bit reluctant, first of all, you’ve only asked for a mini-tour, which would indicate that it’s small and short. But then you say, “Look, it will only take a few minutes, and I promise I won’t sell anyone any life insurance or encyclopedias while I’m in the building.” That usually gets a chuckle, and they will give you the little tour that you need.

Following that, there’s a rule that I have, number five, which I call “Never Forget a Face.” Never forget a face is the rule. But how do I deal with it? When I arrive at the customer and I’m waiting for a few minutes before my appointment to go in, so I don’t have to sit in the lobby. I want to stand in the lobby; I wait in my car.

While I’m in my car, I pull out my phone and I call up that customer because I’ve probably been there before. I’m the manager now, but I had territory. I had a group of customers, and I would visit them on a regular basis. I would go to that customer on my phone and I would look at all the names. I might have anywhere from one or two names up to like 20 names of people that I knew in that customer that I’ve met before. What I do is I re-remember their faces. There might be, say, six people. I look and I say, “Okay, Bob. Who’s Bob? Oh, right, Bob’s the bald guy. Then Sam. Sam, okay, Sam. He’s a short guy, really short guy. Sally, that’s the lady. She has red hair, and Jack and what have you.” I re-remember each one of their faces in the car. If I can’t remember their face, I go to LinkedIn; I find their profile, hopefully, their photo is there. Then I re-remember their faces from LinkedIn. Now, armed with that information, I show up in the lobby. I stand, of course; I never sit in the lobby.

You greet the customer, something in my hands, something in my mind. Ask them for a mini-tour and they agree. Now all of a sudden, we’re through the Golden Gates and into their building, walking through the building. Guess who walks by? Bob walks by. “Hey, Bob, how’s it going? Haven’t seen you in a while.” Jack, Sam, Sally, and all these people come through. In one or a few of my customers, I would know more than two dozen people, and I would always have re-remembered their faces. So obviously, remembering it would be instantaneous. I’d be walking through the building with these people, and I’d just be throwing out names left, right, and center. People are like, “Oh, my God, this guy knows everybody.” And everybody that I would meet along the way would realize that I’d remembered their name. And that garners a huge amount of rapport with people. I can’t say enough when you compare it to the contrary, right? Imagine you’re walking through, and Jack, Bob, Sam, and Sally all walk by you, and you’ve forgotten all their faces and names, and all of them remember your name. And they’re all like, “Hi, Glenn.” And you’re like, “Oh, hi.” You’re just stuttering trying to remember who they are. And before you can remember it and pull it from your memory to the forefront, the moment is gone. You’ve offended the person; you’ve hurt their feelings, and they’ve walked by, and you’ve lost a perfect moment to establish an excellent rapport with the customer. The only way to avoid that is to take bona fide steps beforehand to make sure it doesn’t happen. And that’s using the rule of “Never Forget a Face.”

Switching gears a little bit, I have a rule— it’s tip number six for today, and I call it “Freedom Begins with No.” And so what I mean by that is oftentimes when I’m delivering a product, I might be delivering a product to a customer— of course, I show up in the lobby; I’ve got the product with me. I ask them for a tour so I can set the instrument and set it up for them, show them the product a little bit, and leave it with them. So I’ll get there, we’ll set it up, I’ll look around. I’ll notice that the competitors’ units are there. I can see brand A, brand B. So I realize I’ve got stiff competition. I’m getting incredible market data from this exercise with the customer. I get a chance to show them the product. Then the guy says, “I need you to leave it with me for two weeks.” I mean, this might be an $80,000 instrument and very valuable, and it’s on a tight schedule. Whatever amount of time the customer asks for, I always say to them, “I’m sorry, no, I can’t leave it for two weeks, but I can leave it for four days or five days,” something like that. I cut it down by 50% to 60% of the time they asked for it. The reality is when you’ve been doing this a while, you’ll realize that they very rarely spend any time with your instrument. They really look at it once or twice during the period. By leaving it two weeks, you’re taking it out of the market for an extended period of time, and the customer is actually not evaluating it. They’re not running their products through it, doing testing, or any of those kinds of things. They test it once or twice for a period, a few minutes, an hour to evaluate it compared to what they have now.

And then they put it back in its box, and they leave it there. So there’s really no point in having it sit there collecting dust for two weeks before you can send it to your next customer. And of course, remember, we never fax the facts, and we never ship the shit. So we pick it up, we drop it off, we take it to the next customer. But the fundamental idea around the rule of freedom begins with no is the word no. The customer asked for two weeks, you said no. Another example I like to give with the story is you’ve gone through the whole process, you’ve provided quotes. There’s been a bit of negotiation back and forth with the procurement team or what have you. You know they’ve decided on buying your product, and you’re at some last-minute meeting, and the buyer says to you, “Glenn, everything’s great, but we’re going to need another 3% from you. We’re going to need you to go to the well and see what you can do and get us another 3%.” Imagine now I’m the sales guy, and I say, “Oh, okay, well, I don’t have the authority to give the 3% for one”. I can actually say yes. I can say two things, right? One is no or two is I’ll check. And the thing is that the moment I say anything other than no, all the work is now imparted upon me. I now have to pack up my stuff, get in my car, drive back to the office all the while figuring out what I’m going to tell my boss on why I didn’t close the deal because this guy wants another 3% out of us. We’ve already given up. But the real way to handle it would be to say, “Thank you for your question or whatever, but I’m sorry, we’ve been through a long negotiation period. We’ve come in with our best price. We’re not going to be able to let go any lower on price. As a matter of fact, these are, of course, long lead time items. You’ve indicated that you need four-week delivery, six-week delivery, or what have you. If I don’t get an order from you today and get this system in the queue by the end of the week, we’re not going to make the next production run, and you’ll be looking at an eight-week cycle or a 12-week cycle.”

“I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to provide any more discounts. If you don’t place an order, you won’t receive your product on time”. Shift the focus back to them and ensure they realize that the responsibility is now back on them. The lesson to be learned is that when you decline something, you shift the effort back to the person making the request and relieve yourself. It’s similar to college, where everyone asks, “Can you help me move?” Of course, I’m not suggesting you should always say no, as you might need their assistance later. However, when you decline, you can return to your tasks and nothing changes. When you agree, you have to wake up early, go to their house, and spend the entire day moving furniture up and down flights of stairs. You can clearly see the difference, right? After you’ve already given them your best price and deal, there comes a point where you must be the one to decline. Only those who haven’t fully developed in their role say things like, “Let me check with my boss,” or “I’ll see what I can do.”

Ultimately, the answer comes back as a no anyway. The issue is that you appear weak to your customer and your management. They start questioning the value they’re paying for because you’re not delivering the necessary message. This is Rule Number Six – an important aspect that I’d like to emphasize.

Tip Number Seven, which I particularly appreciate, is what I call “Thank God it’s broken.” I’m not sure of everyone’s age on this call, but I grew up during the time when Sears was a significant store and a popular brand. I purchased everything at Sears and even worked there as a teenager. There’s a story about it in my book. When something broke at Sears, they would repair or replace it, no questions asked, within a year if you were unsatisfied. What I’ve noticed is that mature salespeople immediately answer the phone when a customer reports something broken or not working. It’s the less experienced salespeople who say things like, “Can you get the service department to call them back? I don’t want to deal with their anger or whatever”. However, the true customer relationship isn’t established during the sale; it’s built when you provide service afterward. Each time you have the chance to assist the customer, you validate the money they spent with you. Think about buying a nice car – the sale is just one moment. It could be enjoyable or slightly unpleasant, but the real benefit of buying the car is the dealership’s service. When your salesperson is available for questions, comments, and concerns, customers realize that even if you’re slightly more expensive, you’re there for them when their product breaks. This can make a significant difference.

Moving on to Tip Number Eight, when you call a customer, don’t just dial and hang up repeatedly. Always leave a voicemail. The rule is to leave a voicemail when contacting a customer. Keep it between 20 and 30 seconds – never less, never more. There’s a detailed story and reason behind this in the book, which I encourage you to read. But the sweet spot for voicemail duration is within this range. It becomes a bit odd when you keep calling without leaving a voicemail. If you’ve left a couple of voicemails and haven’t received a call back, consider sending an email. You might even arrange to meet someone else in the same building and ask if they could take you to the customer’s desk so you can greet them in person. Find alternative ways to connect with the customer.

Now, onto Tip Number Nine, which is the main takeaway from my book: you only have forever to make another impression. Many people say, “You have to make a good first impression.” That’s true, but I want you to treat every impression as if it’s your first. When your boss walks by your desk, make sure you appear to be the most engaged person in the office. Avoid scrolling through Facebook or staring at your phone. Always make a positive impression because, whether you like it or not, you’re constantly making an impression in business and life. It’s best if that impression is a favorable one.

Those are the key tips I wanted to share with you today. I’ll quickly go to the end and share some links. Here’s my website and my LinkedIn profile. You might not be able to click on it here, but on my LinkedIn, you can connect with me in various ways. I’m active on LinkedIn and have plenty of great stories to share. If you’re interested in collaborating on anything, feel free to reach out. Thank you.

Subhanjan Sarkar   

Thank you, Glenn. This was fantastic and a great start to our day. Practical experiences are invaluable, and often we’re uncertain if these strategies truly work. Meeting someone like you who not only talks about it but also practices it makes all the difference. I’ll gather some questions, and I can personally vouch for Glenn’s responsiveness to strangers. I was once a stranger, and he truly means it when he says he’ll respond. Despite his busy schedule, which I’m aware of due to his travel, he remains exceptionally responsive. So please, if you have any questions, reach out to us. We’re a bit behind schedule, so let’s move on to the next session. Thank you, everyone, and thanks again, Glenn.

Glenn Poulos   

Thank you so much. Thanks, everybody.

Subhanjan Sarkar   

The next session will begin shortly.

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