Some entrepreneurs think
‘if only I could get the product listed
in Wal-Mart or Costco,
I’ll be set.’

Ummm… no.
50% of all new products
that make it to shelf
don’t succeed.
This despite often paying large listing fees
(grocery stores charge a one-time fee
to put your product on the shelf)
and other set up costs.

You have to sell to
retailers and grocery stores,
yes,
but,
your job isn’t done there,
you also have to sell through to
the consumer.

I like executive summaries
so when The Naked Negotiator
summed up his years of knowledge into one phrase,
I knew I had to share it.

What is it?

“KFC.
The K stands for Know what you want.
The F stands for Find out what you’re getting.
The C stands for Change what you do
until you get what you want.”

That’s it.
The secret of his success.

And it works.
I know.
I use this technique myself.

Harry Mills in The Rainmaker’s Toolkit
shares how to make a favorable first impression.
Smile to ooze warmth
Open stance, standing with your legs apart and arms loose
Forward leaning towards the prospect,
moving your weight forward onto the balls of your feet
Tone, varying your voice pitch, rate and rhythm
Eye contact, focus your gaze
on the prospect’s forehead and eyes
Nod, punctuating your speech with nods and gestures

As you can see,
making a favorable first impression means
using your entire body to do so.
Selling is VERY physical.

A friend was buying a resale home.
The negotiations came down
to price and appliances.
It was understood that
the two were linked.
No appliances, lower price.
Appliances included, higher price.
That understanding made the deal making easier.

When negotiating,
link the different issues as closely as possible,
then ensure that concession on one issue
means concession on the others.
Bundling them will increase
speed of resolution.

In Breakthrough Business Development,
Duncan MacPherson and David Miller
reco building profiles on all your top clients.

These profiles should include information about;
F(amily)
O(ccupation)
R(ecreation)
M(essage)

Message or the product you deliver
comes last
because without the trust and relationship built up
with the first three,
your message becomes a commodity
competitors can copy and lower price on.

Does this work?
Yes

When my novel released,
a headhunter buddy was
one of the first to mention it.
My novel had nothing to do directly
with our professional relationship
yet him remembering it
secured my loyalty.

I’m doing it with my romance blog.
Consulting companies do it with support agreements.
Stores do it with extended warranties.

Convert a one time buy
into a regular stream of income.

One perk of this strategy
is in justifying
the always questioned marketing spend.

An author buddy promoted his static website.
He got some great one time traffic.
There was no reason for readers to come back
so they didn’t.

I’m getting great traffic also
but because of the blog format,
the promise of a new story every week,
my readers are coming back.
I’m seeing readership build.

The result?
The two of us might have the same
number of our first titles sold
for this specific marketing push
but I have the potential
of selling my next title to the returning readers.
More value for the same
semi-pricey marketing spend.

John Jantsch has a great post
on the benefits of having prospects come to you,
rather than reaching out to each prospect.

Yes, I agree that having a prospect come to you is best
but that is a long term tactic.
Blog posts, workshops, ezine articles
all take time and repetition to work.

Entrepreneurs like you and I often need cash NOW.
That is why we reach out to prospects.
We cold call,
we send direct mail,
we go door to door if we have to.

This short term fix isn’t pretty,
it isn’t efficient
but it is often necessary
until the long term tactics give us a return.

Roots and the U.S. Olympic Committee have parted ways.

Was that a bad thing?

Roots co-founder Michael Budman didn’t think so.
He called the split ”one of the best deals that
I’ve ever orchestrated for Roots.”

Would it have helped the bottom line?
No.
“We didn’t have anybody who wanted to buy the product,”
he pointed out.
None of the big U.S. retailers would sell it.

Would it have helped branding?
No.
The Olympic Committee wanted a more formal look
than the Roots brand is known for.

And then there are the protests.
“The Olympics represent something different to me now,”
Budman said in the same interview.
“It’s people being put in jail because they are protesting.”
No one wants their brand associated with that.

Just because a deal is high profile,
doesn’t mean it is the right deal for your company.

Apple has surpassed Wal-Mart
to become the top music seller in the world.
How did this tech company do that?
Especially with so much competition
in the digital music space?

Michael Greene with Jupiter Research credits
the 99 Cent Download as the big win.
Apple gave customers the ability
to pick only the songs they wanted
and offered them at an affordable price.

Can you break your product offerings
into bite-sized purchases?

I was approached to train some volunteers.
The interaction with the co-ordinator
went something like this.

“Could you do the training,
that is, unless you’re too busy.”
“Sure, I’m not too busy.” (A lie)

“If you don’t want to, I’d understand.”
“I want to.”

“Don’t feel like you have to say yes.”
“I’m not that nice of a person.”

“If the weather is bad and you have to cancel,
I won’t get upset.”
“If the weather is bad, I’ll leave earlier to get there on time.”

The conversation went on and on
until I wanted to cancel
so it would stop.

So many salespeople do this with their prospects.
They try to talk them out of the sale.
This isn’t being “nice”,
this is being irritating.

Once the customer says ‘yes’,
stop talking.