There is a bizarre type of salesman that affects me in the same way a major car wreck does.
You know when you are watching TV and a report comes on about a horrendous car accident?
They show a picture of a car that's been hit by a truck and there’s nothing left but a flat crumpled pile of metal, glass and plastic.
And you gasp as you wait for the news reporter to tell you the driver of the car was killed, because no one could survive something like that… right?
But instead you hear “And the driver of the car miraculously survived and is being treated for minor cuts and bruises”
No way.
Your jaw drops in amazement.
How the fuck did anyone walk away from that catastrophe !!??
Exactly the same feeling I get when I see this type of salesman makes a sale after their car wreck of a pitch.
HOW THE FUCK DID HE JUST MAKE THAT SALE ?
But there is a lot more happening here than meets the eye with this guy.
How to Spot a Bulldozer In Your Team
How did this sales guy get nicknamed the “Bulldozer”?
Let's look at the characteristics of an actual bulldozer, the heavy industrial earthmover.
A bulldozer is a forceful, relentless and unstoppable piece of equipment.
A bulldozer doesn't care if it is a scorching hot day or if the temperature is below freezing.
It doesn’t care if it is blowing a gale or pouring rain.
A bulldozer starts pushing enormous amounts of earth from the moment its engine turns on.
It continues to push earth around for 12 hours without a break or complaint.
At the end of the day it turns off and waits to do it all again tomorrow.
There is nothing fancy about the way it gets the job done, it just uses pure BRUTE FORCE!!
And focus.
Just like the heavy duty machine, our “Bulldozer” salesman relies on brute force and focus to get his sales.
He will be at his desk, ready to start calling prospects at 9.00am.
He will keep dialling and pitching, without interruption for the rest of the day. (Maybe stopping for 20 minutes for lunch)
He won't engage in social chit chat or gossip in the office.
He won't stop for multiple coffee or smoke breaks.
I have once seen a Bulldozer keep making sales calls during a fire alarm. (true story)
So a “Bulldozer” has an unshakeable work ethic, but he also has a strange pitch.
The “Bulldozer” salesman's pitch is usually horrible.
It’s unpolished, janky, almost awkward.
And it’s the same, word for word.
Every. Single. Time
The people who sit around him will be able to recite his pitch word-for-word because they have heard it countless times.
But he doesn't rely on his pitch to get the sales.
He is playing the numbers game
He knows that if he calls enough people, and calls them over and over again, they will eventually say yes to him.
If a good salesman is closing 1 out of 20 calls, your Bulldozer is closing 1 out of 200.
So he stays focused, he keeps dialling.
Because he knows if he just does this, he will get those sales.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
The Good
From a Sales Managers point of view this guy can always be counted on to get enough sales to make it worthwhile keeping him on the team.
They never have the highest sales numbers of the group, but they also never have the lowest.
Reliable numbers on the board is one of the reasons that most sales managers employ and keep a bulldozer on the payroll.
Another positive for this guy is that he has “Rhino Hide” for skin.
“No” bounces off him harmlessly. Even an angry or threatening “No” cant hurt him.
Rejection is totally alien to him.
Because of this he is a great last resort for leads that all the other salesmen are too scared to call back or have given up on.
He will keep calling them until they buy.
And speaking of leads, let’s talk about the Bad and Ugly of a Bulldozer.
The Bad & Ugly
This guy will go through leads faster than a blackjack dealer flips cards in a casino.
The amount of leads a bulldozer churns through daily is staggering.
If leads are a precious resource at your company, then this salesman will give you nightmares.
If you have to pay for each lead, the Bulldozer will burn your allocated budget in no time.
This leads to a huge amount of wasted opportunities and potential customers who might have been converted by a more polished approach.
Brute force can backfire.
A lot of prospects will find his approach off-putting or even aggressive, leading to complaints or a damaged reputation for the company.
How To Get The Most Out Of Your Bulldozer
To effectively manage a Bulldozer, it’s crucial to balance his relentless drive with some simple sales techniques.
No point in getting fancy either, simple is best for this guy.
The most effective one that he can use straight away is mirroring.
I’m not talking about the corny type of mirroring where you mimic someone’s body language.
I'm talking about simply repeating back the last three words a client says to you in the form of a question.
Chris Voss, author of “Never Split the Difference” is one of the best trainers of this simple technique.
Watch this 4-minute Youtube video where Chris explains it.
Saying the last three words back in the form of a question sounds too easy, but it really does work in getting the client to explain more and fall into sync with you.
Just get your Bulldozer to practice it enough so that it sounds natural and well timed.
And because it is so simple it’s easy for the Bulldozer to use immediately to improve his awkward sales pitch.
While this alone will not make your Bulldozer’s pitch silky smooth, it should dramatically increase the conversions and reduce the lead burn rate.
The second thing you can do to really help the company is get the Bulldozer to self-generate his own leads.
This guy isn't lazy, he is a workhorse.
If he is shown how to generate or find his own leads, he will overflow your database with potential leads.
This obviously depends on what industry your business is in, but there are literally countless ways to research different market segments for contacts.
Thanks for reading and coming up next:
Thank you again for taking the time to read about the Bulldozer
Next week I will be profiling the super rare sales type “The Kingmaker” and why you need one in your team.
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