Sales Out of Service: A Humanistic Approach to Sales and Customer Service

By Norman Cohn

The American consumer has become the frog in the water. The old sales model that is taught and practiced in this country has conditioned us to accept deceit and nondisclosure. Instead of being served, we are pitched and manipulated. Relationship, service, and authenticity take a back seat to the salesperson’s end game, which is earning commission and generating sales. We have grown to accept this from the waitperson in the restaurant to the president in the white house.

The old sales paradigm that has been around since the days peddling snake oil is based upon the seller getting the buyer to do what the seller wants the buyer to do. Any means justifies the end. Any persuasive, convincing, manipulative technique is justified in order to earn commission. This has been going on for so long and is so pervasive in our society that there is little trust in salespeople, in consumer goods and services, in big business, and in government. Even though the customer has evolved to distrust this old sales model, the old paradigm is still being taught and practiced. It is time for a new sales model. It is time for Sales out of Service.

This book, which is more accurately described as a sales training manual, introduces and teaches a new sales paradigm that is based upon honesty, integrity, relationship, and service. It is for those who want a long-term career in sales and customer service, a career that affords you financial freedom, and success.

Sales out of Service evolved empirically over the course of twenty years. Norman Cohn started the Utah College of Massage Therapy with $200 and grew it into a $40 million dollar business with seven schools in four states. In a competitive industry, his schools excelled qualitatively and quantitatively. Sales out of Service permeated his schools influencing everything from management to the students’ classroom experience. He attributes the growth and success of his business to this new model of sales and customer serv

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543913309

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©2017 Norman Cohn. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN: 978-1-54391-329-3 (print)

ISBN: 978-1-54391-330-9 (ebook)

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

-Nelson Mandela

Education worthy of the name is essentially education of character.

-Martin Buber

DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I dedicate this book to all the people who were part of UCMT, who rode the rollercoaster with me, who joined me in a commitment to make a difference, and who supported my vision. I specifically want to mention two men, Phil Nauahi and Kyle Garrett; both have passed on. I thought of them while writing this book; how much I respect and appreciate them, and how much I miss them.

I want to acknowledge all of my teachers, mentors, and coaches, who are too many to mention. Their ideas and words came through me, and live on the pages of this book.

And, I also want to thank my son Sam Cohn, and my girl friend Laura Duncan for proofreading the final copy, Connor Duncan for tech support, Kris Rumpf for cover design, and Matthew Idler and the editors at BookBaby for their valuable assistance.

Thank you all!

Table of Contents

START HERE

PART I. A: WHO YOU BECOME ON THE COURT

PART I. B: WHO YOU BECOME ON THE COURT (CONT.)

PART II: METHODOLOGY FOR ACCOMPLISHMENT

PART III: SIX STEPS OF SALES

THE ZONE

THE LAST WORD: THE STORY OF PHIL

ADDENDUMS

Believe nothing, O monks, merely because you have been told it or because it is traditional, or because you yourselves have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.

-Buddha

START HERE

FOREWARNING

Writing this book is kind of a sticky wicket. I am not a writer. I made my living as a lawyer, a college professor, a Gestalt Therapist, a practitioner of Structural Integration, a salesperson, an entrepreneur, a manager, and the owner of a $40 million vocational school business. So, dear reader, please do not find fault with this book because of the way it is written. Read it pragmatically in order to become a successful salesperson. I don’t care if my book wins any writing awards, and you shouldn’t either. Please don’t let my lack of writing skills get in the way of your learning.

This is a difficult book for me to write not only because I lack the skills and experience of a professional writer, but also because I perceive the material contained in the book as a whole, an interconnected web of interdependent and interrelated information. In this web of interrelatedness, all the ideas are connected to all the other ideas; picture a three-dimensional spider web or a tensegrity model. When I try to write about an idea or a concept, my mind literally connects it with other ideas and concepts that contribute to creating the paradigm. So, writing this material in logical sequence and linear form, one page following another page, one chapter following another chapter, is challenging. My goal is that you the reader, upon completion of the book, see the same web of interconnected information, the gestalt, the big picture, and how it all works synergistically to generate specific measurable results, and success in the market place. Sales out of Service is an empirically developed closed and complete interrelated system, the application of which will lead to a rewarding career in sales.

This is a book about a new sales paradigm, and because it is a new paradigm, it will not sound like, read like, or look like the old sales model. This is not a typical book on sales. It is not a treatise on new and better ways to manipulate people into buying your goods and services. It’s not old wine in a new bottle.

One of the aspects of this book that will set it apart from other sales books is my concern for humanistic values, that is, honesty, ethics, empathy, treating others with respect, and honoring the dignity of all human beings. Many of the stories in the book are personal, and many of the concepts have come from my experiences. I have taken ideas from humanistic psychology, Eastern philosophy, education, and from my many teachers, coaches, mentors, and colleagues. I want the reading of this book to be more than a cognitive process. I also want it to affect the reader emotionally, to touch the reader, to inspire the reader, and to move the reader into action.

Even though, this book is different than other sales books, and is personal to me, it does present you with a new sales paradigm that works. It is a pragmatic approach to sales based upon experience, observation, and verifiable data, which have been proven to quantitatively and qualitatively produce results.

The process I used to write Sales out of Service was to review my training notes, and codify their contents into this book. Some of the ideas are presented repetitiously, and are supported by stories, quotes, and anecdotes, which is the method I have used to teach the material. Over the many years that I trained my admissions staff, I took different cuts on the many concepts that make up the ideas behind Sales out of Service to make them more understandable. As you will see, some of the concepts and ideas are presented in more than one explanation, using multiple metaphors, or examples, but with the intention to make each one clear and understandable.

I am not a writer. I’m not an observer giving an account of what is occurring on the court. Rather, I am a participant, and I write this book as a successful player on the court of business. I’m a talker and a teacher, and hopefully, my voice will come through the pages of this book.

THE HOUSE THAT NORMAN BUILT

When you look at houses, they will appear dissimilar; they will have different exteriors, different interiors; they will be different sizes and have different flour plans. However, some homes may have the same moldings, the same windows, stoves, sinks, and so on. Despite these similar parts, when you put it all together, the result is a unique house distinct from all other houses.

This is the concept behind the ideas in Sales out of Service. You may see parts of the paradigm that remind you of other teachings. You will see words that are used in the old sales paradigm, and you will see similar concepts. I have built this paradigm using many of the same terms and titles traditionally used to teach sales; however, there are differences that set Sales out of Service apart from the traditional sales model. Don’t let familiarity with a term or concept get in the way of learning from this paradigm. I will show the differences between the old paradigm and Sales out of Service, and how in today’s world, especially in urban areas, the old paradigm is an anachronism that doesn’t get the same results as it might have gotten in the past. So, please don’t let already knowing shade you from seeing the whole picture presented in Sales out of Service.

I consider Sales out of Service to be a new sales model, and throughout this book I will distinguish it from the customary model of sales taught and practiced in this country. Sales out of Service is truly about being in relationship with, and serving the buyer. I assume if you have been trained in sales, you have heard the terms relationship and service. Throughout the book I will drill down into the differences between the old sales model and my new paradigm regarding these two terms.

PREFACE

This book is divided into three parts. The first part is about who you create yourself to be on a pragmatic workable metaphorical court of Sales out of Service. As a qualification, the concepts in Part I are only presented for this sales model and the metaphorical court of sales. They are not intended as a way you should or ought to lead your life, and I apologize if they come across that way. I don’t want resistance to the general ideas presented to get in the way of you benefiting from Sales out of Service. Part II is a pragmatic workable methodology for accomplishment. I neither invented nor discover this methodology. However, I have used it to my advantage; I ran my business on it, and I taught it to my students in my vocational schools. Part III is the six steps of Sales out of Service, which is presented in logical sequence. If you have been trained in the old paradigm of sales, many of the steps will seem familiar. Please allow me to present you with the differences between the old paradigm and Sales out of Service, even though some of the steps may look comparable. Simply put, Part I is who you are on the court, Part II is a methodology for accomplishment on the court, and Part III contains the steps you take to actually sell on the court.

Remember that Sales out of Service is a pragmatic empirically proven new sales paradigm. It is neither theoretical nor pie-in-the-sky. It is not based on hope; instead it is based on experience. Over the course of nineteen years that I owned and operated my business, I compared specific measurable sales statistics to similar businesses in the same industry, and found it to consistently produce superior result.

THE ETHICAL STANDARD OF RECIPROCITY: A FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SALES OUT OF SERVICE AND THE OLD SALES PARADIGM

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon the world.

-Albert Camus

In distinguishing Sales out of Service, I will begin with the oldest and most widely known ethical standard associated with human interaction, which is the ethical standard of reciprocity, commonly known as the golden rule. The ethical standard of reciprocity, simply stated, is to treat others the way you want to be treated. This is a proactive rather than a responsive or reactive standard, meaning you proactively treat others the way you want to be treated. Sales out of Service is true to this most basic universal ethical standard. The traditional sales paradigm taught and used in this country is not. Rather, the old paradigm relies on manipulation, and using nonfeasance, that is, not telling the buyer something the seller would want to know if the seller were the buyer. It relies on the pitch to persuade and convince, and it relies on maneuvering the buyer into closing the sale. There are over one hundred manipulative closing techniques taught in this old outmoded model; all are designed to get the buyer to sign the contract of sale and close the deal so the seller can earn commission. I don’t want some salesperson using a closing technique on me or treating me as a mark or a sucker, and I assume it is offensive to most buyers. The close is the fourth step of the six steps of Sales out of Service included in Part III, the six steps of Sales out of Service. In this paradigm there is no need for closing techniques as the close transitions naturally and easily from the first three steps.

There is a plethora of quasi-psychological or quasi-scientific information and methodology for surreptitiously influencing behavior being taught and practiced in the old paradigm that offends the ethical standard of reciprocity. No one wants to knowingly have their behavior influenced by a salesperson, and if the buyer did know of such covert practices, the buyer would understandably be offended.

The old paradigm is a means to an end designed to get the buyer to do what the seller wants the buyer to do, and this definitely offends the ethical standard of reciprocity.

Throughout this training manual, I will prove that you will have more sales and better numbers, you will reduce buyers remorse, you will have more repeat customers, you will generate more word-of-mouth leads, and you will enjoy the process more as a result of applying the Sales out of Service paradigm than by relying on the old sales model.

HISTORY OF SALES OUT OF SERVICE

This book comes from my experience of thirty years studying, practicing, and teaching sales. So, a little about my background: I have a degree in business and finance from the University of Southern California, a law degree from the University of San Francisco, and a master’s degree in humanistic psychology from Sonoma State University. I have worked as a trial attorney, a college professor, a Gestalt therapist, an advanced practitioner of Structural Integration, and a vocational school director. From 1974 until 1984 I was out of country living and working as a Gestalt therapist and bodyworker in Europe and in India. I returned to this country in 1984 and started a massage therapy school in 1986. I sold my schools in 2006, raised two of my sons, and am presently retired. The information in this book, and the paradigm Sales out of Service was developed empirically over the course of the nineteen years I owned and operated my massage therapy schools.

Some history is important to discuss in order for you to understand how the paradigm was developed, came to be implemented, and resulted into the vehicle for the tremendous success I experienced. I started the Utah College of Massage Therapy as a small vocational school in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City. The school grew slowly for the first two years, and when I reached the two-year mark of operations, I was able to apply for accreditation. Once accredited, I was eligible for federally funded financial aid, making the school available to more students, which resulted in increased enrollment and the growth of my business. One of the admissions regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Education precluded me from paying commission to my admissions representatives (my salespeople). As the school grew, due to my eligibility to offer federally funded financial aid, I needed to hire effective professional salespeople, and as I interviewed applicants for the job of admissions representative, it became painfully obvious that I could not afford the people I wanted to hire. The experienced and accomplished salespeople I interviewed were used to earning commissions, and I could understand their reluctance to take a position starting at a lower salary.

I tried hiring seasoned vocational school admissions representatives, but I did not have a good experience with them. They came in thinking they already knew how to sell, and I didn’t like the way they treated prospective students. I don’t want to disparage them, but at the same time, I refused to use the out-of-date model of manipulative sales techniques upon which they relied. I eventually developed a process that worked, and it became an important part of the growth of my schools, and of my success. The process I developed involved choosing graduates from my schools who believed in what we were doing, and were already always in relationship, but had no prior professional sales training. (I will explain what I mean by already always in relationship later.)

One of the graduates I choose had been a professional football player before attending my school; another had graduated college with a degree in exercise physiology; another had held a management position; another had been a chiropractor; another had a degree in communications; another was a personal trainer; and another had worked as a waiter in his family’s restaurant. My new model worked. In the vocational school business everything is measured and recorded, especially in admissions. Admissions numbers are lead generated. The marketing department is responsible for generating leads. The admissions department is responsible for converting the leads into appointments with admissions representatives, then converting the appointment to a lead that shows up for the appointment, followed by converting the appointment to an enrollment, and finally converting the enrollment into a student who starts the program. All of the conversions are measured in percentages, and through these percentages I could calculate how much overhead was needed to invest in different types of advertising to generate the leads needed to fill classes for each start date. Through our accrediting agency and other sources of industry information we were able to compare our conversion rates to those of other vocational schools offering federally funded financial aid. Our admissions conversion rates were consistently superior, as were our retention rates, and our placement rates.

Let’s go back and look at this. Instead of hiring experienced professional vocational school admissions representatives who relied upon the old sales paradigm, I choose graduates from my massage therapy program, people who had no previous sales training or experience, but who believed in what I was doing, and who were already always in relationship (remember, more on this later). I trained them in what would evolve over nineteen years of continued success into Sales out of Service.

So, this book is about a new sales paradigm that resulted from those years of on-the-court experience supported by measurable results. Through this paradigm, the school established relationships with the students based upon honesty, mutual respect, appreciation, and understanding. This relationship with our students led to high retention rates, and high placement rates. This sales paradigm helped me grow a small massage school I started with $200 into a successful $40 million business consisting of seven schools in four states.

I love sales. For me, it is a way of serving, enjoying relationships with my customers, and making a difference in people’s lives. I loved my business. We received taxpayers’ money as grants and loans to train students; we got our graduates jobs, and they in turn paid back the loans they received from the taxpayers. During the nineteen years I operated my schools, at the end of each program, we had the students fill out a three-question survey to which they were not required to sign their name. The questions were: Did you get more than you expected? Did you get your money’s worth? Did you experience growth and personal development?

Over nineteen years, a yes answer to the first two questions averaged in the middle eighty percentile, and a yes answer to the third question averaged over ninety percent. Through our students, we touched