Category: Sales

A salesperson loved one
coached a younger salesperson
today on a casual comment
she made.

She asked a prospect
if he was happy
to be going
‘back to work.’

There was a long pause.

She asked if his office
was re-opening.
The prospect answered THAT question.

Many people have been
working
harder than ever
while working from home.
They ARE back to work.
They never stopped working.

And it irritates
the f*ck out of them
when people imply
they haven’t been working.

Irritating people
won’t help you
sell products or services.

You CAN ask business associates
if they’re happy to be
going back to the office.

Stop asking people
if they are happy
to be going
‘back to work.’

One of the hot trends
with entry level
and mid list writers
is Patreon,
crowdfunding for artists.

Some artists
are earning BIG money
on Patreon.
The top artist
earned $95,000 a month
last year.

But that’s because
that artist is well known
in their community.
They have spent time and money
on marketing and brand awareness
and content.

Patreon works well for them
because they don’t have
other easier venues
to offer their art
to paying consumers.

Writers, however,
DO have easier venues
to offer their art
to paying consumers.

Patreon isn’t offering writers
a built in readership.
Writers have to bring
the readers to Patreon,
not the other way around.

And many writers are finding
if they spend the same time and money
on bringing readers to a site,
they’d have the same or better results
bringing readers to a bookseller site,
a site these readers already use.

Kickstarter,
crowdfunding for start up businesses,
has the same challenge
for yet-not-known brands.

Seth Godin
shares

“Most of the time,
for most projects,
Kickstarter isn’t the answer
to the question you’re asking.
That’s because
it could more accurately
be called Kickfinisher
–you build a following first,
over time,
and then Kickstarter is
the moment in time
that those followers show up
for your work.”

Kickstarter and Patreon
can be very effective.

But, while you’re an unknown,
you WILL have to bring
new customers to them.
They won’t supply customers.

So think about
whether or not
their site
is the ideal place
to direct your customers.

The first books in my series
always have a much lower rating
on Amazon.

Why?

Because many new readers
are trying these first books
and some of those readers
won’t like them.

Readers/customers are more likely
to leave a review
when they DON’T like a book/product.

They also aren’t likely
to buy the next book/product
I produce.
That means they’re not leaving
a bad review on THOSE books/products.

So how do I decide
whether or not
to produce more books/products
like that first book/product?

I look at pre-order sales
of the next book/product.

I also look at post-release sales
of the first book/product.

Am I selling more units?

If so, unless I’m heavily promoting
that book/product,
reaching new-to-me markets,
someone must be talking positively
about my books/products.

If the product can be re-purchased
(books aren’t re-purchased),
ARE there re-purchases?

Ratings and reviews
can be deceiving.

Look at sales
to determine
how customers REALLY feel
about your products.

Every time I tell someone new
I’m a writer,
they or someone with them
usually tells me
they plan to write a book too.

They say that
as though THAT is the hard part,
the key part
of being a writer.

It isn’t.
Writing a book is d*mn easy.
Heck, monkeys have written books.

Selling the book is the hard part.
Being able to sell books
(to publishers, to agents,
to booksellers, to readers)
distinguishes the professional writers
(business builders)
from the hobbyists.

Seth Godin
shares

“The hard part is
earning attention and trust.
The hard part is
helping someone make the choice.

(There’s a difference
between the hard part
and the important part.
Without the factory,
there’s nothing to sell.
Making it is important.
But increasingly,
it’s not the hard part.)”

The hardest part
of product development
is selling the product.

A skilled salesperson does this
very well
– play devil’s advocate.

He addresses possible objections
from prospects
proactively.

He’ll tell prospects
something like this
– “Some customers, at first,
were concerned about our product
being X dollars more expensive
than our competitor’s product.
That is true.
Our product IS more expensive.
But it also has (this extra feature)
and (that extra feature).
And we can break down the cost of it
into smaller payments,
timing it to better align
with your increased revenue.”

By addressing concerns
proactively,
he shows he’s thinking of them.

Gregory Ciotti
shares

“Playing the role
of devil’s advocate
has been found
to increase people’s resolve
in their decision making,
not hinder it.

Be your own devil’s advocate
and back up typical objections
with solutions
to dismiss
your customers’ apprehensions.”

Your prospects
WILL have objections.

Consider addressing them
proactively.

One of the largest booksellers
in the US
made a decision in April
not to pay
their vendors.

(They’ve now reversed
their decision
but I’ll still walk you
through my thought processes
because YOUR customers
might not reverse their decisions.)

The bookseller announced
they wouldn’t pay the publishers
and they wouldn’t pay the Indie writers
supplying books
to their online store.

I decided
to keep my eBooks
in their online store.

Why?

Because pulling my eBooks
would have made matters worse
for the bookseller
and it would have punished
my loyal readers there.

And it doesn’t cost me
anything
to keep my eBooks at a bookseller.
The expense of creating
those eBooks
have already been incurred.

But I moved forward
with the assumption
that I’d likely never get paid
for the eBooks I sold
at that bookseller.

If they paid me,
great.
That would have been a welcome
and unexpected bonus.

If they hadn’t paid me,
it wouldn’t have destroyed my business
because I was no longer
counting on that cash flow.

I suspect some of your customers
might be in financial trouble also.
Evaluate each one,
asking yourself
what you would gain
and what you would lose
by continuing to supply them
with product/services.

And don’t count on
ever receiving another dime
from them.

I belong to a group
of five writers.

This group is really good
at ensuring writers
write and promote.
It is naturally competitive
and we push each other.

The rewards for being competitive
are higher sales
and larger readerships.
Those are great incentives.

The group, however,
is p*ss poor
at sharing tips.
Sharing tips would benefit
all of us.
All of our sales
and readerships would grow
if we talked about
what works and what doesn’t.

But there’s no incentive
to do that.
And with the competition factor,
there is a DISINCENTIVE
to cooperate.

If I share a tip
and the other writers don’t,
their sales and readerships
will grow
and mine won’t.

I’ll be less competitive.

This 100% focus
on competition
is hurting all of us.
It is impeding our success.

If you don’t give
your salespeople an incentive
to cooperate,
the 100% focus on competition
will hurt your company also.

Encourage cooperation
AND
competition.

A company sent me a message
informing me
all I had to do
to join their preferred members club
was share ONE of their posts
on social media.
That would make a difference
to them.

Well, h@ll, I could do that.
So I did
and now I’m part of their club,
which means I receive more ‘exclusive’ offers
from them
but I also receive more selling messages.

The American Cancer Society
added a line to their campaign
– “Every penny will help”
and that increased their response rate
for donations
from 28% to 50%,
with no decrease in the average give.

“The researchers concluded:

People are more likely
to take action
when minimal parameters are set.

People may ask themselves
if they have enough to donate
and whether it will make a difference.
By clarifying that
“even a penny” could make a difference,
the second line makes the request
more achievable
for those considering a donation.”

Minimal perimeters work.
Consider using them
in your sales copy.

A business builder
asked me
how she could train
her salespeople
on selling
while wearing a mask
when she has never
done that.

Yes, SHE has never
sold products/services
while wearing a face covering
but others have.

In the Middle East,
it is common
for women
to cover their faces.
Products and services
are sold there.

Many cultures
have alternatives
to shaking hands.
We can learn from them.

There are salespeople
who have ALWAYS sold
usually high touch
products/services
to remote communities
via the internet.

There are people
who have done
something similar
to what we seek to do.

Consider thinking outside
your current cultures
and learning from others.

Make it your own
but start with a base
that has been proven
to work.

That will save time,
resources and frustration.

This morning,
thousands of churches
in America
figured out ways
to hold their services
without putting their followers
in danger.

They might have broadcast the services
over the internet
or on TV,
arranging slots
with
local channels or,
in the case of megachurches,
national channels.

They might have,
as my Mom’s small church did,
called each follower.
(She told me
she loved that
MORE
than the regular services.
It was the highlight of her day.)

These churches did the hard work
of adapting
and they showed
they valued
their followers’ lives
and health.

A few churches,
however,
didn’t bother to adapt.
They insisted on
holding in-person services,
knowingly placing all their followers
in danger.

These followers trusted
their religious leaders.
They trusted them
to have their best interests
at heart.
They trusted their religious leaders
to keep them safe.
When these leaders
told them
in-person church services would continue,
they showed up.

But these religious leaders
abused that trust
because there was no way,
at this point
of the crisis,
they COULD keep
their followers safe.

The leaders knew this
and, in my opinion,
they are responsible
for any health issues or deaths
that will be associated
with their services.

We have people
who trust us also.
They could be children,
business partners, employees,
parents, neighbors.

They are trusting us
to keep them safe,
to put their lives
and their health first.

We should make the best decisions
we can
for them
using the best information
we currently have.

Our businesses can recover
or they can be restarted later.
That is more challenging
to do
with people’s lives.