Category: Sales

Call To Confirm Attendance

A buddy of mine
is getting married this year.

She sent out the invitations.

Only 10% of the guests
RSVPed by the deadline.

That isn’t an unexpected result.

When I hosted events
before COVID,
I had to call
most of the invited guests
to confirm they were attending.

Now, we’re dealing
with people with COVID brain.
They can’t remember sh*t.

So not only do we have to
call to confirm they plan
to attend events
but we also have to
call to remind them
to attend them.

Factor that into
your planning.

Assume Your Customers Can’t Do Math

An editor buddy of mine,
in the past,
would quote the cost
of her service
in cents per word.

She would tell writers
their story would cost
X cents per word to edit.

That X is a small figure.
And many writers can’t do math
so they assumed the cost would also be small.

But most stories are long.
My editor buddy would give them a bill
for over $700
and the writers would freak out.

They wouldn’t or couldn’t
pay my editor buddy
for the service
she already gave them.

Now, my editor buddy
gives prospective clients
an estimated total cost
based on an estimated word count.

More prospective clients
decide not to hire her.

But almost all of the clients
who DO hire her,
pay for her services.

Most of your customers
can’t do math.

Factor that into
pricing discussions.

Rewarding Behaviors

Yesterday,
I talked about how
AI business builders
are publishing
30 different versions
of the same book
under 30 different pen names.

You might be wondering
why this is now
more effective
sales-wise
than simply focusing on
1 book and 1 pen name.

It is because
Amazon’s algorithms
now focus almost entirely
on new releases
and they hide older books.

A new release
in the publishing world
is now
a release that is less than
7 days old.

This means publishing
at minimum
once a week
gains MANY more sales
than publishing
once every three months.

(Is it more profitable?
It is for the book creator
if they use
a low cost option
like AI.
Amazon, however,
incurs incremental costs
per book listing.)

Amazon’s algorithms
reward new releases.
They are getting a deluge
of new releases.

We get more
of whatever we reward.

Remember that
when you’re designing
incentives.

Customer Service And Mask Wearing

I continue to wear masks
as I can’t afford to be ill.

Whenever I shop or dine out
or do anything,
I prefer to deal
with mask-wearing people.

I am, for example,
much more likely
to enter a store
if I see at least one person
wearing a mask.

Yes, there are scared
and angry people
who are set off
by people wearing masks.

But there are also
plenty of people
who prefer to deal with
mask wearers.

They feel mask wearers
are safer,
more inclusive,
more accepting people.

Consider having at the very least
one mask wearer on your staff
and then protect that person.

Everyone Wants Direct Links

If you send virtual promotional material
– a newsletter, a social media post,
an email
– give your prospects direct links
to your products
in their country-specific store.

Almost no one is going to
search for your product.

Many prospects are so accustomed
to receiving direct links
they don’t know HOW
to search for your product.

I receive emails from readers
in countries I sell very few books in
asking for direct links.

Yes, they prefer to email the writer
of a book
than to search for that book
at their online store.

Give your prospects
direct links.

December And Bad Reviews

This is based on
purely anecdotal evidence
(collected over decades)
but December is a ROUGH month
for reviews
and for customer service feedback.

The average person
thinks others are full
of holiday cheer
during this time of year.

The average person
is also stressed, super busy
and extremely grumpy.

The happy customers
have no time to leave reviews.

The unhappy customers
are often unhappy with the entire world
and they make the time
to take that unhappiness out
on what they believe
is a faceless company (or author).

Reviews and customer feedback
will skew toward the bad
during December.

Expect that to happen.

It is merely part
of doing business
during this month.

For Every Customer Contacting You…

I send my beloved Mom
a poinsettia
every November,
the start of
her holiday season.

Every October,
I have to email
the florist
to ask them if they are selling
poinsettias
that year
as there aren’t any yet listed
on their site.

They say, ‘Yes.’
I buy a random florist bundle
and ask them
to change the order
to a poinsettia.

Every year.

Which is fine
for me
because I know the florist has sold poinsettias
in the past.

But what about new customers,
customers who don’t know
they sell poinsettias?

What about customers
who don’t want to take on
the extra work
of contacting the florist?

I suspect THEY
either
don’t order the poinsettias
or
they contact another florist,
a florist who has poinsettias
displayed on their site.

And there ARE other customers
like me wanting poinsettias.

Because for every customer
contacting a business
about something,
there are dozens or hundreds
of customers
with the same issue.

If one customer contacts you
about an issue,
consider fixing that issue
for everyone.

Sourcing Private Information From Other People

A relative asked me
what my romance novel pen name was
(he believed I only had one).

I told him
I don’t share that information
and I told him why
I don’t share that information.

He then sent his wife
to ask me
what my pen name was.

When I told her
the same thing,
he asked at least
one other relative
if they knew my pen name.

That’s d@mn creepy.
Restraint order level creepy.

I plan
to avoid this relative
going forward.

I’m blocking him
both virtually and in real life.

Don’t try to source
private information
from other people.
Go to that person directly.

If they don’t want to share it,
then stop trying to obtain it.

Don’t be a creep.

Increasing The Price For Dirty Produce

Should you wash
your produce thoroughly
before selling it
at a farmers’ market?

Logic would say
you should.

But humans
aren’t logical beings.

There was a study
by the National Farmers’ Market
Association
that found
consumers were willing to pay
25% more for the exact same produce
if it came dirty.

Why?

Because they feel dirty produce
is ‘proof’
it came directly
from the farm.

Don’t wash
your produce
before selling it
at a farmers’ market.

Direct Contact With Customers

One of the challenges
with working with
large resellers
like Amazon
is we, as business owners,
have little direct contact
with those customers.

We don’t have access
to their email addresses
or their phone numbers
or who they are.

If we part ways
with that reseller,
we part ways
with that customer.

I recently purchased a product
from Amazon.

Inside the product’s packaging
was a card
that offered me
a free add-on product
if I emailed them
and gave them ‘honest’ feedback
on the product.

I emailed them
because… why not?

Boom!
They captured
all my contact information.
They now have
direct access to me.

I became
THEIR customer,
not merely Amazon’s customer.

All for the price
of a $10 at retail
add-on product.

There ARE ways
to gather the contact information
of customers
at resellers.

Consider implementing
one of those ways.

Convert that customer
into YOUR customer.