Category: Sales

My latest book
has no reviews
days after
it has been released.

But I know readers loved it.

Why?

Because over 60% of them
have already pre-ordered
the next story
even though
that next story doesn’t release
for 3 months
(a long time
in the book business).

Reviews can lie.
Ratings can lie.

Competitors have been known
to manipulate these.
Some people will tell you
what they think
you want to hear
or what they think
people like them
should say.

Pre-orders/advance sales/additional orders
don’t lie.
If those are high
(in the book business,
that’s often an over 50% rate),
customers/clients love
what you sold them.

If those are low,
you either have to make
next orders easier to do
or
you have more work to do
on your product/service.

I shop at small businesses
because I want to support
local businesses.

Huge corporations
will almost always
supply a comparable product/service
for a lower cost.

There are only so many units
I can buy from any small store,
however.

Which is why I LOVE
when small businesses
have
virtual tip options
at their online stores.
I can ‘purchase’
a virtual tip
or support our store option
at checkout.

The store
receives extra income,
pure profit,
and I feel that,
based on NO proof,
the store will take extra care
with my order.

It is win-win.

Consider offering
online customers
a virtual tip option.

Recently, I witnessed a debate
on the internet over the word
‘hustle.’

One side said
hustle was a bad thing.
It was unethical.

The other side said
hustle was a good thing.
It was
a necessary attribute
to succeed.

They were both right.
They were merely talking about
different definitions of hustle.

There’s the older meaning.
“…to sell something to
or obtain something from
(someone)
by energetic and
especially underhanded
activity : SWINDLE”

And there’s the more modern meaning.
“To strive headstrong
and voraciously
towards a goal.”
“Working hard,
usually towards
the common goal
of creating an income.”

Language changes
every d@mn day.

Ensure, when you’re talking with
prospects, customers, partners,
you’re using the same meanings
for words.

This is especially important
if you’re speaking with someone
who is from a different generation
or culture
or demographic.

Pay What You Want Pricing,
at first,
seems like
the perfect type of pricing.

Customers are always happy
with the pricing
because they set it.

Business owners hope
the generous few
offset the cheap many.

What it truly does
is push the burden
of market research
on the average customer.

Because the average customer
will want to pay
the average price
and they can’t do that
unless they know
what everyone else is charging.

So they investigate that
and, while doing that work,
they will likely find
a competitor who is also
offering what they want
and at a set price.

The customer knows
that competitor will be happy
with that price.
They don’t know that
about the Pay What You Want business.

Some Pay What You Want businesses
have ‘solved’ this issue
by stating the average price
customers pay,
which, of course,
merely becomes the set price.

Pay What You Want pricing
can be a great choice
for some businesses
but it isn’t the ideal pricing
for every customer.

Don’t expect
to make everyone happy
by offering it.

A charity I was thinking about
giving to
stated on their site
that sponsorships
were X dollars
per child.

Then they stated
that sponsorships were shared
as it cost much more than
X dollars to cover the expenses
for one child.

So I reached out to them
and asked the obvious question
– how much does it cost,
on average,
to cover the expenses
for one child?

They either didn’t know
or they wouldn’t share
that information
and they were extremely heated
in their response.

I found a similar charity
who had that number
and gave money to them.
And yes, their number
was much more than X dollars.

If we’re asking for money
to help do a thing,
interested parties
WILL, if they are wise,
ask us
how much money
it will take
to do one of that thing.

If your goal is
to feed the hungry,
you should know
how much it costs,
on average,
to feed one hungry person.

If your goal is
to plant tress,
you should know
how much it costs,
on average,
to plant one tree.

If your goal is
to care for children,
you should know
how much it costs,
on average,
to care for one child.

(The most basic calculation
for this is
– Total costs
divided by
the total number of that ‘thing’.)

Expect to be asked
for that information.
Have it ready.
Don’t become upset
when people ask for it.

Reading the comments
under social media posts
about how the moon’s ‘wobbles’
impact tides
reveals one new reality
– there is someone
in this wonderful world
who doesn’t believe
in a fact
we all assume
is undeniable.

And this person (or people)
will be very vocal
about this stance.

There were many comments
from people
who don’t believe in tides.
At all.

That tides exist
is a fact
that a visit to the ocean
would prove to be true.

There will be a fact
concerning your product/service
someone won’t believe also.
It is doubtful
you will be able
to convince them it is true.

Those are not your customers.
Point them to an FAQ page
on your website
and focus on other prospects.

During the pandemic
and the series of lockdowns
around it,
many businesses
were forced to develop
online presences.

They had to figure out
a way to sell products/services
with social media
and websites
and other virtual formats
if they wanted
to stay viable.

Now that the world
is starting to open
back up,
I see many of these businesses
reducing their online presences
and focusing back
on their physical storefronts.

This makes me nervous
for them.
It is almost a certainty
another pandemic
or crisis
will force us
back into a lockdown
in the future.

If you can,
remain online.
Encourage in person patrons
to sign up for your newsletter.
Maintain that virtual storefront.

You could expand
your business
and possibly save its future.

I don’t like
looking at myself
during Zoom calls.

I find it distracting.
It’s a novelty.
We don’t usually
look at ourselves
while we talk.

And because I’m distracted
by that,
I don’t pay attention
to what others
are saying or doing,
which defeats the purpose
of having
the remote meeting
in the first place.

It turns out
there’s another reason
not to embrace
our self view.

Seth Godin
shares

“In Zoom,
find the button
for HIDE SELF VIEW.
What this means is that
as in real life,
you won’t be able to
see yourself.
It turns out that
looking in the mirror
all day
wears us out.”

Hold better Zoom meetings.
Hide the view
of yourself.

There was a discussion
in Romanceland
about a writer
who was dropped
by her agent
for insisting her story
be written for
a ADHD readership.

The discussion centered around
discrimination against
writers with ADHD
but I think another discussion
should have been made
about trying to sell
a niche product
(a romance written
for readers with ADHD)
to a mass marketer
(a big New York
Traditional Publisher).

It seldom works.

Mass marketers
want mass sales.
They want big
target markets.
They want high turn.

Niche products,
by definition,
don’t provide this.
They also don’t
benefit
from the mass market treatment.

Splashing ads everywhere
is usually an inefficient way
to sell niche products.
Niche products
often benefit from
the hand selling,
the relay of extra information
smaller stores and venues
can provide.

Is your product
a niche product?
(It benefits you
to be honest about that.)
Then consider
targeting niche outlets
first.

A company a loved one works at
had its best quarter ever
last quarter.

What was the biggest contributor
to that great quarter?

Reduced travel costs.

Due to the pandemic,
executives, salespeople, others
weren’t traveling.
They were holding virtual meetings.
And all those saved travel expenses
went straight to the bottom line.

One of the executives
also said
he had attended the highest number
of executive meetings
in one quarter
he’d ever achieved
…because he didn’t have to travel
to attend them.

They plan to continue
some of the virtual meetings,
holding physical meetings
more rarely in the future.

We changed to survive
the pandemic.

Some of those changes
could make our lives better
and our businesses more successful
in the future.
Don’t blindly discard them.